



BY CORNING HJMSEL 









Class 
Book 




Copyright^ 



COPYHIGHT DEPOSIT. 








CORNING STRAIN UTILITY COCKEREL 
Four Months and Twenty Davs Old 






THE CORNING 
EGG FARM BOOK 
BY CORNING HIMSELF 



BEING THE COMPLETE AND AUTHENTIC 

STORY OF THE CORNING EGG FARM 

FROM ITS INCEPTION TO DATE 

TOGETHER WITH FULL DESCRIPTION OF THE 

METHOD AND SYSTEM THAT HAVE MADE 

THIS THE MOST FAMOUS POULTRY 

FARM IN THE WORLD 



BOUND BROOK, NEW JERSEY 

THE CORNING EGG FARM 

PUBLISHERS 

1912 









Copyright, 191 2, by 
GARDNER CORNING 






• CI.A303? ♦'■ 



CONTENTS 

PAGB 

INTRODUCTORY 13 

CHAPTER I 

The Building of the Corning Egg Farm ... 21 

Started with 60 Buff Rock Eggs ... 22 

More Money in Eggs 25 

Adopted White Leghorns 25 

First Use of Roosting Closets 27 

We Count only Livable Chicks .... 30 

Percentage of Cockerels Low 31 

The Great Flock System Succeeds ^ 

Foreigners Visit the Farm 34 

Investigated for Germany 35 

Selection of Cockerels 36 

Pullets Lay in 129 Days t>7 

Keeping Down Labor Bill 39 

Adopted Hot Water Incubators .... 40 

Why Great Farms Fail 41 

CHAPTER II 

Egg Farming the Most Profitable Branch of 

Poultry Keeping 43 

Developing the Great Layer .... 43 

Corning Method in Small Flocks .... 44 

On Large Farms 46 

CHAPTER III 

What is a Fresh Egg? An Egg Should be Sani- 
tary as Well as Fresh 48 

Manure Drainage to Drink 48 

3 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Diseased Meat to Eat 49 

As the Food, so the Egg 49 

A Perfect Egg a Rarity 50 

Unlimited Demand for Quality Eggs ... 50 



CHAPTER IV 
Preparation of Eggs for Market 54 

CHAPTER V 

Selection of the Breed. — The Strain is of Ut- 
most Importance 58 

S. C. White Leghorns Outclass All . . . 59 
Line Breeding — Not Inbreeding . . .61 
How Corning Farm Produces Unrelated 
Cockerels 62 

CHAPTER VI 

Advantages of Large Flock System — Reduces 
Cost of Housing and Economizes in 

Time and Labor 64 

Draughts the Stumbling Block 65 

2,000 Birds to a House 66 

CHAPTER VII 

What is a Winter Layer? — The Properly 

Hatched and Reared Pullet ... 68 
Must Feed Green Food 69 

CHAPTER VIII 

A Great Laying Strain — The Selection of 

Breeders to Produce It 7 1 

Eighteen Months Old 7 1 

Trap Nests a Failure 7 2 

Type Reproduces Type 73 



CONTENTS 5 

CHAPTER IX , 

PAGE 

Best Time to Hatch 76 

Experiment in Late Hatching 78 

CHAPTER X 

Succulent Green Food — Satisfactory Egg Pro- 
duction Impossible Without It . . .80 

Sprouted Oats Best 82 

How They are Grown on the Farm ... 82 
Timothy and Clover Cut Green .... 84 

CHAPTER XI 

Anthracite Coal Ashes — A Substitute for 

Many More Expensive Necessities . . 86 
Better Than Charcoal .... . . 87 

CHAPTER XII 

Eggs for Breeding Should be Laid by a Real 

Yearling Hen 89 

90,000 Orders for 40,000 Eggs .... 90 

CHAPTER XIII 

Policing the Farm with Bloodhounds, etc. . . 92 
Shoot First — Investigate Afterward ... 92 
Socrates, the Great Bloodhound .... 93 

CHAPTER XIV 

Necessity for Pure Water — An Egg is Chem- 
ically 80% Water 96 

Automatic Fountains Essential .... 96 

Hot Water in Cold Weather 97 

Hens Drink More in Afternoon .... 97 



6 CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XV 

PAGE 

Hard Coal Ashes, Oyster Shell, and Grit . . 99 

CHAPTER XVI 

Beef Scrap and Green Bone Substitutes for Na- 
ture's Animal Food 101 

Green Cut Bone Nearest Nature .... 101 



CHAPTER XVII 

A Time for Everything — Everything on Time 103 
Fixed Feeding Hours . . .... 103 

Four Collections of Eggs Daily .... 105 

Mash Fed in Afternoon 105 



CHAPTER XVIII 

Incubation on the Corning Egg Farm . . . 106 

Hen Reigns Supreme 106 

Livable Chicks — Not Numbers .... 107 
Uniform Temperature Most Important . .108 
Ventilation and Moisture Next .... 108 

Hot Water Machines Best no 

Corning Incubator Cellar Unequaled . . .111 
Eggs Turned from Third to Eighteenth Day . 112 

103 Degrees Maintained 112 

Cool But Never Cold 113 

Cover Glass Doors 114 

All Good Chicks Hatch in 20 Days . . .114 
Set Incubators Toward Evening . . . .115 
Tested Only on Eighteenth Day . . . .116 

Moisture 117 

Chicks Handled Only Once 117 

Baby Chick Business Cruel 118 



CONTENTS 7 

CHAPTER XIX 

PAGE 

Rearing Chicks in Brooder House — The Fol- 
lowing Two Years' Results Depend Up- 
on Success in Brooding 121 

Corn Not Proper Chick Food 122 

Follow Nature's Teaching 122 

A Balanced Food 123 

Never Build a Double House 126 

Must Drain Chick Runs 127 

Concrete Floors Mean Dampness .... 127 
Corning Heated Brooder House .... 128 
Corning Feeds Dry Food Only . . . .129 

Three Feeds Daily 129 

Green Food Third Day 130 

Animal Food Tenth Day 130 

Avoid Moving Chicks Often 132 

CHAPTER XX 

Handling Birds on Range — The Youngsters 

Must be Kept Growing All the Time . 134 

A Corning Wrinkle 135 

Grain and Mash Once a Day 137 

Plenty of Shade 139 

Removed to Laying House Middle of Septem- 
ber 140 

CHAPTER XXI 

Feeding for Eggs — Wholesome Nourishment 

— Not Destructive Stimulants . . 143 

Easy Assimilation 143 

Perfect Health or No Eggs 144 

Abundant Animal Food 144 

The Corning Mash the Secret 145 

" Egg Foods " Kill Layers 146 

Mustard Increases Egg Laying .... 147 

Mustard Increases Fertility 148 

4,000 Layers Fed Mustard 149 



8 CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Mustard Maintains Health 150 

Keep Appetite Keen 150 

CHAPTER XXII 

Breeding Hens During Moult — Coming Breed- 
ers Must be Kept Exercising Through 

This Period 153 

Do Not Overfeed 154 

CHAPTER XXIII 
Feeding the Breeding Cockerels 156 

CHAPTER XXIV 

Preparing Surplus Cockerels for Market . .157 
Must Have Green Food 158 

CHAPTER XXV 

$6.41 Per Hen Per Year 159 

$6.41 Not Extravagant Claim 160 

Corning Farm Makes More Than $6.41 . . 161 

CHAPTER XXVI 

The Buildings on the Corning Egg Farm . . 163 
No. 1, Brooder House, Incubator and 

Sprouted Oats Cellars 164 

Building No. 2, Work Shop, etc 167 

Building No. 9, Horse Stable 169 

Building No. 10, Wagon Shed 170 

Building No. 12, Office Building .... 170 

CHAPTER XXVII 

Construction of Laying, Breeding, and Breed- 
ing Cockerel Houses 171 

Nearly Six Feet from Ground 172 

Double Floors 173 



CONTENTS 9 

PAGE 

Canvas Windows 174 

Double Doors 176 

Draught-Proof Roosting Closets . . . .177 

CHAPTER XXVIII 

The Colony Houses — There are Forty-one on 

the Farm 180 

Cotton Duck Windows 181 

CHAPTER XXIX 

Materials Required for Laying Houses . . .182 
Bill of Material for the Construction of Colony 
House 183 

CHAPTER XXX 

The Original Thirty Hens 184 

CHAPTER XXXI 

Egg Records 186 

How Corning Farm is Able to Get Great Egg 

Records 187 

Highest Percentage of Fertility .... 188 

CHAPTER XXXII 

Prevention and Treatment of Diseases . . . 190 

CHAPTER XXXIII 

A Word in Closing 192 

Nothing to Hide 193 

Illustrations are Photographs 193 

The Corning Success 193 

Our Advice to Beginners 194 

Single Comb White Leghorns Only . . . 194 

It's " Strain " You Want 194 

Utility, Not Show Birds 195 

Corning Largest Specialty Farm in World . 195 

Points That Mean Success 196 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Corning Strain Utility Cockerel . . . Frontispiece 

FACING 
PAGE 

Lay-Out of Farm 16 " 

Interior Sterile Laying House No. 3, in 1910 . 22 

Entrance to Farm in 1909 24^ 

As You Approach the Farm, 191 1 28* 

Office Building 30 

Breeding Cockerels, Fall of 1909 34 

Interior Laying House No. 2, in 1910 .... 38 

Panoramic View of the Farm 46 

Thirty Dozen Corning Sanitary Fresh Eggs Ready 

to Ship 54 ' 

The Strain that Makes the Corning Egg Farm Fa- 
mous 58 

Three Sterile Laying Houses Containing 4,500 Pul- 
lets 64 

Interior Laying House No. 1, in 1910 .... 68 

One of the Breeding Houses just after Mating, 1910 72 

Sprouted Oats Cellar 78 

Two-Weeks-Old Chicks in Brooder House Runs . 84 

Yearling Hens in Breeder House before Mating . 90 

* II 



12 ILLUSTRATIONS 



FACING 
PAGE 



" Socrates," the Great Bloodhound Which Heads the 

Corning Kennels 92 

"Socrates II" and "Diogenes" 94 

Buster, America's Greatest Ratter 94 ' 

Corning Automatic Drinking Fountain . . . .96' 

Part of the Old Incubator Cellar 104 

Brooder House, Showing Chick Runs . . . .120 

Old Arrangement of Brooder House 124' 

Chicks Six Weeks Old 128 

Colony Range Feed and Water Wagon with " Billy " 136 

Feeding on the Colony Range 140 

Baskets of Eggs 150 

Breeding Cockerels, Fall of 191 1 156 

No. 3 Laying House Filled with 1,500 Pullets . .158 

The Workshop on the Corning Egg Farm . . . 162 ' 

The Celebrated Corning Large-Flock Laying House 

No. 3 170 

Laying House Prepared to Receive 1,500 Pullets 

from Range 172 

One of the Breeding Houses in 191 1 1 74 

The Corning Colony House 178 

Breeding House in 1907 — The Original Corning 

House 182 

Pullets in Laying House No. 2, Fall of 1911 . . . 184 

Diagrams and Detailed Plans of Buildings, etc. . . 199 



INTRODUCTORY 

The Method, and the style of the buildings, 
evolved and worked out on The Corning Egg Farm, 
when put into book form proved so helpful to so 
vast a number of poultry keepers, that the sale of this 
first literature, which for a time was added to as the 
months went by, reached the enormous total of over 
140,000 copies in eighteen months. 

The writings were the simple, plain statements of 
facts, and enabled others who followed them to reach 
a success which, until this System was used, may have 
been dreamed of, but was never realized. 

The literature from this Farm has gone out over 
the entire civilized World, and the visitors, who ar- 
rive in ever increasing numbers from month to month, 
come from every quarter of the Globe. 

The Corning Egg Farm has been written of in 
periodicals of every nature, and in almost every lan- 
guage the World over. For the last twelve months 
the requests for further, and more explicit, detailed 
information relative to breeding and feeding for eggs, 
the specialty from which The Corning Egg Farm has 
never swerved, have become a demand. So that, after 
mature deliberation, it was decided to write the his- 
tory of The Corning Egg Farm, from its inception to 

13 



14 INTRODUCTORY 

date, including the work of the last two years, which 
has never before been fully published. 

" The Corning Egg Farm Book by Corning Him- 
self " is to-day the only publication giving facts in 
regard to the Farm and its unique Method right up 
to date. 

As the book is read it must be borne in mind that, 
in breeding to produce a great layer, at first very 
marked increases in the number of eggs during the 
first ten months of laying may be gained. The gen- 
eral average number of eggs laid each year, from offi- 
cial reports, is less than ioo per hen. On The Corning 
Egg Farm, when the average had reached 143.25 
eggs, the next jump, in the following year, was more 
than had been expected, and the record of 145. 11 
eggs for each hen for ten months, though showing 
an increase apparently small, in reality was a very 
great advance indeed. 

From this time on, the gain, although representing 
a narrower margin of increase, was in reality a much 
greater achievement. The trotting horse may serve 
as an illustration. When Dexter trotted his famous 
mile he clipped off a number of seconds from the 
previous record, and it seemed as if it would be a 
matter of considerable time before his mark would 
be lowered. But within a comparatively short time 
a number of trotters turned off a mile in two-ten, 
and from this figure, within a short period, a large 
company of famous horses had reached the two- 



INTRODUCTORY 15 

five mark, but every quarter of a second which re- 
duced this mark meant greater achievement in breed- 
ing than was represented by the reduction of records 
from two-sixteen to two-five, and we have not yet 
seen the horse which, in single harness, without a 
running mate, can turn the mile track in two min- 
utes flat. 

The Corning Egg Farm realizes that from this on 
improvement will be shown by fractional figures, but 
these fractions will represent a greater progress than 
the figures which have gone before. 

Two years ago the unequaled results of The 
Corning Egg Farm had seemed unsurpassable, but 
to-day we are able to look back from higher ground 
and see the road over which we have traveled to 
reach a point very considerably beyond the unequaled 
position of two years ago. 

It is our hope and aim, year by year, to improve 
the present position. The man who believes he has 
learned all there is to learn is a failure. The suc- 
cessful man is the one who is sure there is an op- 
portunity to advance considerably beyond the point 
he has already attained, and The Corning Egg Farm 
believes this to be true, and has constantly worked 
with that idea before it. 

With an experience back of them of nearly six 
years the Builders of The Corning Egg Farm know 
that this Book furnishes the necessary guide for suc- 
cess in poultry culture. What has been, and what 



16 INTRODUCTORY 

is being, done at The Corning Egg Farm is not ex- 
perimental work. Successful results follow the 
Method and System employed as surely as day 
follows night. It is no longer necessary for the 
novice to try out the various plans proposed to him 
by the literary poultryman, whose methods are 
worked out on a mahogany desk, with pen and ink, 
or more often, perhaps, by dictation to a stenogra- 
pher. 

Years of careful thought and study, and the ex- 
penditure of much time and many thousands of 
dollars in developing the Corning Method have 
eliminated all necessity for experimental expenditure. 
The building up of an Egg Farm is within the reach 
of any man who will follow the Corning plan herein 
described faithfully and persistently. 

The man or woman who determines to pursue some 
branch of the poultry industry must first decide what 
particular branch. 

Shall it be to raise poultry for market ? 

If so, what? Squab Broilers? Soft Roasters? 
Or Capons? 

Perhaps all of these. 

Some utility line is the best to start with. 

Fresh, sanitary eggs are a necessity and command 
the highest price in the market, daily, for spot cash, 
just as readily as stocks and bonds command a daily 
cash value in any financial market. There can be 










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INTRODUCTORY 17 

no better proof of the truth of this than the success 
of The Corning Egg Farm. 

In whatever line a beginner decides to start he 
needs to go straight down that line without devia- 
tion, taking as his motto, " This one thing I do." In 
the fullness of time, having established a reputation 
for the quality of his eggs and birds, the demand for 
his eggs for hatching purposes and for his birds as 
foundation stock for other people, will naturally come 
to him, and it is very profitable. 

One certain fact should be settled in the under- 
standing of every beginner, to wit: it is not possible 
to invest from five hundred to five thousand dollars 
in the Poultry Industry and double your money in the 
first year, or even to earn 50% on the investment. 
Neither is it possible with $300.00 to build a Laying 
House with a capacity for five hundred birds, if the 
house is properly built for warmth and meets sanitary 
conditions. 

Housing for hens must be free from dampness. 
Concrete absorbs dampness, therefore, avoid it. 

Any person starting in the poultry industry for 
profit, and, intending to follow it for a livelihood 
should begin in a small way, realizing that, like any 
other business venture, it must be built up and grow 
from year to year, and that, certainly for the first 
year, no money can be drawn out for living expenses. 

These statements are made clearly and emphatically 



18 INTRODUCTORY 

because quite the contrary has been given out as a 
fact. Such reckless representations, because untrue, 
are misleading and injurious to both those engaged in 
the poultry industry and also to those who contem- 
plate entering it, and should be branded as false, and 
the authors of such statements should be prohibited 
from using the United States Mails. 

We are not, and make no pretense of being, philan- 
thropists. We have written this Book primarily with 
the expectation that it will make The Corning Egg 
Farm and the Corning Method of Poultry Culture 
even more widely and impressively known to the 
World, and so benefit us by increased demand for our 
stock, eggs, and all other goods we may have for sale. 

Secondly, we know that the Book will benefit 
others if they will follow the Corning Method and 
System herein laid down, and so prove of mutual ad- 
vantage to readers and authors as well. 

The Single Comb White Leghorn is par excel- 
lence the Egg Machine, provided always first class 
and the best strain of birds is procured, and the 
Corning Strain, without doubt or question, is the very 
best strain of Single Comb White Leghorns yet de- 
veloped anywhere in the World. 

We know this new, large, complete and thoroughly 
up to date Book will be the means of bringing us, and 
our unequaled Strain of Single Comb White Leg- 
horns, into favor with thousands of people who, as 
yet, do not know us, just as the publishing of the 



INTRODUCTORY 19 

small and older booklet put us into touch with other 
thousands who are now doing a prosperous business 
by the use of this same Corning Strain Single Comb 
White Leghorns, and by following the Corning 
Method now more completely elaborated and ex- 
plained in " The Corning Egg Farm Book by Corn- 
ing Himself." 

Edward and Gardner Corning. 

The Corning Egg Farm, 

Bound Brook, New Jersey. 
December, igu. 



The Corning Egg Farm Book 

CHAPTER I 

The Building of the Corning Egg Farm 

Having determined, in 1905, to engage in some 
business connected with the feathered tribe, we de- 
cided to try out the squab proposition versus market 
poultry. After searching over a period of many 
months, in various parts of the country, with the idea 
of finding a place where the existing buildings might 
be utilized for our needs, we finally were obliged to 
abandon this idea and purchased, early in the year 
1906, twelve and a half acres of land, now known 
as Sunny Slope Farm. This property lies about two 
miles west of Bound Brook, New Jersey, which town 
is reached by the Central Railroad of New Jersey, 
the Baltimore & Ohio, the Philadelphia & Reading 
and the Lehigh Valley Railroads, and the Farm is 
most accessible, as it is on the trolley line which con- 
nects Bound Brook and Somerville. 

In the early Spring of 1906 we began our build- 
ings, erecting a house, for raising squabs, which 
would accommodate five hundred pairs of breeding 

21 



22 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

birds, a hen house of the scratching shed variety, 
capable of accommodating some two hundred and fifty- 
hens, and a work-shop with living apartments for the 
resident man. 

We also sunk a well one hundred and seventeen feet 
deep, erecting over it a sixty foot wind-mill tower, 
which carries an eighteen hundred gallon tank. From 
this pipes were laid to convenient parts of the property. 

Three hundred pairs of Homer pigeons were placed 
in the house built for that purpose, and we went dili- 
gently to work to prove that this was the quick and 
easy way to wealth which the ingenious writers of 
squab literature proved so conclusively on paper. 

On the chicken side of the experiment we seemed 
to lean (possibly because of the fact that squabs take 
one into the slaughter house business) towards one 
or more of the market breeds, and, to meet the needs 
of this part of the business, we understood that any 
of the " Rock " family were best for the purpose. 

Started with 60 Buff Rock Eggs 

We purchased an incubator with the capacity of 
sixty eggs, being fearful of attempting the operation 
of a larger machine, because, like a great many novices, 
we had the feeling that an incubator was a very 
dangerous thing, and that anyone without a vast 
amount of experience should not attempt to handle 
it. We placed in this diminutive machine sixty Buff 
Rock eggs, and obtained a very fair hatch. With 




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THE BUILDING OF THE FARM 23 

daily contact our fear of the machine decreased, and 
we exchanged it for one with a capacity of one hun- 
dren and twenty-five eggs, and this, in turn, was ex- 
changed for one holding two hundred and fifty eggs. 

We obtained fairly large flocks of youngsters that 
season, but, as we had the usual hallucination that 
poultry culture was really a miracle, and required 
neither work, capital, nor brains, that all you had to 
do was to accept the profit and the chickens did it all 
themselves, we did not get so very far. The growth 
of the birds was so slow they did not reach a profitable 
weight until the broiler market had dropped the price 
to its lowest level. The pullets which we carried 
through the winter never produced an egg, for the 
simple reason that we had never studied the question 
out as to how the hen produces an egg. In other 
words, our lack of knowledge of the right methods 
was the reason for charging up a considerable loss 
instead of profit so far as the first season's work with 
hens went. 

We very early discovered there must have been 
a considerable amount of fiction in the writings on 
the squab industry. One reads that a pair of pigeons 
eats nothing like the amount of food which is re- 
quired for one hen, and that they never eat more than 
their exact wants require, and that when they have 
young in the nest, this amount is very slightly in- 
creased. We found, however, that they ate in sea- 
son and out of season. In fact one recalls, in this 



24 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

connection, and with considerable amusement, the 
song, in the light opera " Wang," of the elephant who 
ate all day and the elephant who ate all night. 

During our work with pigeons we tried out a num- 
ber of different varieties : Homers, Dragoons, Runt 
Dragoon crosses, Homer Runt crosses, Maltese 
Hens, and the various crosses with Runt Dragoons; 
also Carneaux. We were led to buy these fancy breeds 
through the stories of extreme prices paid for large 
squabs, and we bred some heavy weights only to find, 
from the commission man who made a specialty of 
these birds, that it was impossible to pay the price 
which such birds were really worth, as trade for this 
class was extremely limited. 

Very early in our experience we realized that the 
poultry side of our experiment was very much more 
to our liking and offered so much greater and more 
profitable outlook for our energies that we rang 
down the curtain on Squab raising — and turned our 
attention exclusively to the Hen. 

While our minds were still running in the line of 
poultry for market purposes we tried out the Black 
Orpingtons, the idea being that, on account of their 
size, they would make ideal roasting fowls. We 
found, however, that they were a very much inbred 
variety, and it was almost impossible to hatch the 
eggs. Out of one hundred eggs, for which we paid 
twenty dollars, eight chicks hatched, and these were 
not of sufficient vitality to live. 



THE BUILDING OF THE FARM 25 

More Money in Eggs 

During all this time, however, we were studying 
the poultry question, and had arrived at the conclu- 
sion that there was more money in eggs, properly 
produced and marketed, than in any other branch. 
One of the difficulties we met with in our investiga- 
tions was the fact that so many different writers had 
such a variety of ideas on the same subject, and prac- 
tically no two of them agreed on any given part of 
poultry culture. What seemed to us even more con- 
fusing was that, in most cases, the writer summed 
up his article by contradicting everything he had said 
in the previous chapters. We were finally forced to 
the conclusion that the raising of poultry had not yet 
been reduced to a science, but was almost entirely 
made up of guesses. In our investigations, however, 
we found in the writings of the late Prof. Go well, 
of Maine, an entirely different condition. He was 
the first man, so far as our observations went, who 
worked on the principle that effect followed cause, 
in poultry as in everything else. We studied his bul- 
letins with great interest, and decided we would en- 
deavor to prove that the same results gotten by him 
could be duplicated by others. 

Adopted White Leghorns 

We had also been studying the condition of the 
egg market, so far as New York and vicinity was 



26 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

concerned, and had found that this market paid a 
premium for a white shelled egg. This, then, was 
the determining factor in the selection of the breed 
of fowls, and after gathering all the information we 
could regarding birds which laid white eggs, we were 
satisfied, taking everything into consideration, that for 
an Egg Farm, the Single Comb White Leghorn, was 
the only fowl. 

In the Spring of 1907 we collected a breeding pen, 
from different sources, of thirty Single Comb White 
Leghorn yearling hens, and three strong, vigorous 
cockerels. We purchased an incubator holding three 
hundred and ninety eggs, and three out-door 
brooders, and built a number of small Colony 
Houses to move the birds into as soon as they were 
large enough to be transferred from the brooders. 
The hens chosen for the initial breeding pen of the 
Farm were most carefully selected, for even then we 
had in mind the result which we intended to reach, 
as to the ultimate type of layer on the Farm. We 
placed the resulting eggs from this breeding pen in 
the incubator, using a primitive turning machine to 
keep them in proper condition until the requisite 
number was acquired to fill the incubator. Our 
hatch was a very good one, and we succeeded in raising 
a fair number of the youngsters hatched. 

During the Summer we erected what is now known 
on the Farm as the No. 1 Laying House. This was 
built one hundred feet long, by twelve feet wide, and 



THE BUILDING OF THE FARM 27 

on the same twenty foot section construction which 
has proved to be so successful a plan for poultry 
houses. The one mistake in this house was its width, 
and that has now been remedied by widening it to the 
standard, sixteen feet in width, and sixty feet in 
length have been added to it. 

The youngsters on range grew rapidly. We mar- 
keted the cockerels at between eight and ten weeks 
of age, and they weighed from one and a quarter 
pounds to a pound and three quarters. These were 
sold " on the hoof," as we had decided for the future 
to do nothing in the slaughter house line, and to this 
decision we have strictly adhered, shipping alive also 
all culls and birds of any age showing imperfections, 
the majority of our stock finding ready market for 
breeding purposes when we are ready to dispose of it. 

As a correct record of the mortality of our hatch- 
ing, and the number of cockerels marketed, had been 
kept, we found that we should have in the Colony 
Houses about two hundred and twenty-five pullets to 
place in No. 1 House. 

In catching up the birds we found that the number 
figured on was about right. These two hundred and 
twenty-five birds went into the House, October 31st. 
They were already laying on the Range. 

First Use of Roosting Closets 

It was a very interesting sight to us to watch these 
birds at work in the first house which had ever been 



28 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK . 

successfully built without partitions, in other words, 
one large flock with the run of the entire house. 
Others had tried it, and had failed. They had had 
draughts, and had found the house, therefore, very 
undesirable. We conceived the idea of roosting" 
closets, with a partition extending some little distance 
beyond the dropping boards, running from the ceil- 
ing to the floor, thus breaking the house up so far as 
extended circulation of air went, and at the same 
time giving the birds the benefit of the larger area. 

It was also a matter of great interest to two 
novices to watch the Qgg output in this first house. 
On the first day of November five eggs were gath- 
ered; on the second, seven; the third saw a drop to 
four. Of course these pullets had been giving us 
more eggs than this on the Range, but a transfer from 
one place to another always means a set-back to a 
layer. 

The middle of the month saw the hens producing 
above seventeen eggs a day. December was started 
with an output of forty, and from that the birds ran 
into larger numbers daily until the last of December, 
when, with the mercury registering well down 
around zero, they were turning out one hundred eggs 
a day. The increase in the egg output continued 
steadily, and we found that March was the record 
month, but the highest single day was in April, when 
the pen produced one hundred and seventy eggs. 



I 




AS YOU APPROACH THE CORNING EGG FARM FROM THE PUBLIC HIGHWAY, 

IN 1911 
Showing 264-Foot Brooder House, Breeding Cockerel House and Office 



THE BUILDING OF THE FARM 29 

We were well satisfied with the result of the Win- 
ter's work with these pullets, and, although we did 
not have the knowledge that has since come to us in 
feeding for eggs, the output was a most creditable 
one, and we found a ready market at a good price. 

Early in the Fall we had mapped out our plans for 
a very decided increase in plant for the coming season. 
The excavation for the Incubator Cellar, sixteen by 
fifty feet, had been made, and the Brooder House 
above it was enclosed without difficulty before 
weather of any great severity overtook us. We were 
blessed with a very late Fall, and mild weather con- 
tinued, with only occasional dips, well into December, 
1907. 

We installed in the Cellar ten incubators, with a 
capacity of three hundred and ninety eggs each. 
The Brooder House, with its arrangement for Hovers 
and Nursery pens, was all completed, and the month 
of March found us placing eggs in the machines. 

In the Fall of 1907 we had enlarged our Breeding 
House, so that we were able to place in it some two 
hundred and fifty breeders. Out of our original pen 
of thirty, we had lost two. From different sources 
we bought yearling hens, and with our original 
twenty-eight, made up the breeding pen. 

Of course, as we had planned to endeavor to pro- 
duce some three thousand pullets for the Fall of 
1908, we were obliged to very materially supplement 



3 o THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

the product of our own breeders, with eggs from 
other sources, and this we did, buying eggs from 
different breeders, in widely separated territories. 

As the hatching season advanced we added one 
more incubator to our battery of ten, and we placed 
in these incubators a total of eleven thousand eight 
hundred and four eggs, of which two thousand and 
ninety-six showed dead germs and clear eggs on the 
fourteenth day test. 

The resulting number of chicks placed in the 
Brooder House was five thousand eight hundred 
and sixty-six for the entire season. 

We found that the eggs purchased did not produce 
anything like the number of chicks, that is, strong, 
livable chicks, that did the eggs coming from our own 
breeding pen, which proved to us that the method of 
feeding and caring for breeding stock, pursued by 
others, fell very far short of the results gotten by our 
own methods. 

We Count Only Livable Chicks 

The lesson of incubation, which it is so difficult to 
make people understand, is not so much a question of 
how many chicks may be hatched from a given num- 
ber of eggs as of how many strong, livable chicks 
are brought out. We very early in our hatching ex- 
perience decided to count only those chicks, which 
were strong, and apparently capable of a steady 
growth and a sturdy maturity. Thus, the count of 



THE BUILDING OF THE FARM 31 

the number of chicks produced, does not really show 
the number which came out of the shells. 

We were extremely fortunate in handling the 
youngsters in the Brooder House, and our mortality 
was very low, and when the youngsters were placed 
in the Colony Houses, which had been built during the 
early Spring months, and placed out on the Range in 
readiness for them, they were a sturdy, vigorous 
crowd. 

Percentage of Cockerels Low 

The number of cockerels was very low, and these, 
as rapidly as they developed, were taken away from 
the pullets and placed in a fattening pen which had 
been provided, and as our stock was still an " un- 
known quantity " in Poultrydom, we marketed the 
larger part of them at broiler size. 

The pullets came on finely, and the records show 
that a large number of them came into eggs when 
they were a few days over four months of age. 

Through the connivance of an employe we made 
a heavy loss in the way of theft, and, when the final 
round-up of the pullets came, we found we had one 
thousand nine hundred and fifty-three. 

During the Summer, we had built the No. 2 Laying 
House, sixteen feet wide by one hundred and sixty 
feet long, and in this house the first fifteen hundred 
pullets were installed, the balance going into No. 1 
Laying House. 



32 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

A number of visitors had called at the Farm dur- 
ing the Summer of 1908, and we had listened to the 
different stories of the ease with which five thousand 
laying pullets were produced annually, but at the end 
of this season we had much more respect for the 
number five thousand than we ever had before, and 
realized very fully what it meant to produce that 
number of females each year. 

With the placing of these fifteen hundred pullets 
in this House of one hundred and sixty feet in 
length by sixteen feet wide, without being divided 
into separate pens, each hen having the entire run of 
the House and no more (that is, she did not leave the 
house for a yard, but stayed right in that space and 
did her work), we accomplished what, from the stand- 
point of all authorities on the subject of Poultry, was 
an impossible thing to do, and have the hen produce 
anything. And yet each hen had only two and one 
third square feet of floor space, which included the 
dropping boards. 

The secret of being able to work the hen success- 
fully in such a limited space per bird is in the length 
of the house. In reality, every bird has one hundred 
and sixty feet by sixteen feet in which to exercise 
and roam. 

The four hundred and fifty-three pullets which were 
placed in No. 1 Laying House were given the entire 
run of this house, of one hundred feet by twelve feet, 
and yet the Egg Record for the ten months, in which 



THE BUILDING OF THE FARM 33 

these birds never left either house, is rather in favor 
of the house containing the fifteen hundred pullets. 
The average number of eggs per pullet in these houses, 
from December 1st, 1908, to September 30th, 1909, 
was 143.25. Many people who had seen the No. 2 
House filled with the fifteen hundred pullets could 
hardly believe what they saw. 

The Great Flock System Succeeds 

The extreme health and great vigor of the birds was 
evident to anyone who looked in through the wire 
doors. Articles were written in numerous papers 
stating that the thing was impossible, and that, be- 
fore many months, absolute failure would result. 
But in spite of all the prophecies the great flock sys- 
tem, in the Corning style House, proved by its great 
success, that a decided forward step had been made 
in economical management and housing of poultry. 

We had gone ahead handling poultry in just the 
same way that any business would be handled, plus the 
scientific study of the anatomy of the hen, and what 
it was necessary to breed in order to accomplish a 
great success as a producer of large, white, uniform 
eggs, with the ability added to that formula, of turn- 
ing them out in large quantities. 

Callers at the Farm brought very forcibly home to 
us the fact, then quite unappreciated by us, that the 
methods employed, and the results obtained, were 
very remarkable from the standpoint of anything" 



34 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

done in Poultry Culture up to that time. It was 
pointed out that in almost every other case it was not 
known by the poultryman just where he stood at any 
time of the year, let alone being able to tell where he 
stood every day of the year. The success of The 
Corning Egg Farm really has that feature as its 
foundation stone. 

Before the close of the ten months of laying of the 
1953 pullets we had received a number of overtures 
to put our methods and results into a book, and, after 
a time, such a book was written. The tremendous 
sale and success of that book is now a matter of his- 
tory, and the great number of people who were helped 
to better things in poultry, and the still greater num- 
ber of novices who were started on the road, were 
enabled, through this book, to reach a success which, 
as many of them testify, would have been impossible 
without it. In eighteen months over one hundred 
and forty thousand copies of this first book were sold. 
Hundreds of people came to the Farm to find out for 
themselves whether or not the statements in the book 
were true, and these people found everything, down to 
the smallest detail, just exactly as represented. 

Foreigners Visit the Farm 

The Visitors' Register, which is kept at the Farm, 
shows callers from almost every nook and corner of 
the Globe. In Scotland, a short distance from Glas- 
gow, there is now almost a perfect duplicate of Sunny 




O 

CO 

W 
W 
U 

o 
u 



- 

- 

pq 



\ 



THE BUILDING OF THE FARM 35 

Slope Farm. The owner, who has twice crossed the 
ocean and come to the Farm, states that if you were 
blindfolded and taken from Glasgow the three miles 
out to his property it would be quite impossible for 
you to tell whether you were in New Jersey or Scot- 
land, so absolutely alike are the buildings in every 
detail. 

In England, a short distance from Tunbridge, the 
Corning Laying House is again found. At this 
Farm both White and Black Leghorns are carried, 
and the owners write that they are meeting with great 
success in following the Corning Method. 

Investigated for Germany 

Germany sent a man who spent twelve months in- 
vestigating the different methods of poultry raising 
and housing, and he visited all the plants of any note 
whatever from the Atlantic to the Pacific, including 
Canada, down to the Gulf of Mexico. He did not 
make his mission known, and it was only after his 
return to his native country that his identity was dis- 
closed. His report is of more than passing interest 
to The Corning Egg Farm, as it states that the Method 
and System envolved on The Corning Egg Farm 
surpasses anything that has as yet come under his ob- 
servation. The investigator is not only conversant 
with what he saw in the line of poultry breeding dur- 
ing his twelve months' sojourn in America, but he is 
thoroughly posted in regard to everything in Europe. 



36 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

The pullets were hardly placed in the Nos. i and 2 
Laying Houses, in the Fall of 1908, before we began 
to plan for the Spring of 1909. We had enlarged the 
Breeding House again, so that we now had housed 
some four hundred and seventy-five yearling and two 
year old hens. These were made up from our breed- 
ing pen of the year before, and as many of our two 
hundred and twenty-five pullets as qualified. We 
bought a few other yearling hens from different 
sources, and likewise the necessary complement of 
cockerels. 

Selection of Cockerels 

We gave great care to the selection of the males 
heading the breeding pen. every bird having perfect 
head points, being strong and vigorous, and as large 
as we could find him, where we felt sure that no out- 
side blood had been introduced. 

The Brooder House during the Fall, was mate- 
rially added to, giving us twenty Hover Pens, three 
feet wide, and twelve Nursery Pens, each nearly five 
feet wide, this giving us a Brooder House 118 feet 
long by 16 feet wide. 

We again this year (1909) supplemented our own 
breeding pen with purchases of eggs from different 
sources. 



THE BUILDING OF THE FARM 37 

Pullets Lay in 129 Days 

Our hatches this Spring were very successful, and 
the chicks which went up into the Brooder House 
were strong and vigorous. The mortality was low, 
and when placed on Range they grew rapidly. The 
pullets came into eggs, as they had in the two previous 
years, within a few days after they passed the four 
months' mile-stone. 

We had added some six Colony Houses to our 
range equipment. The building originally designed 
for pigeons we planned to change over into a Breed- 
ing House, for, in the Fall of 1909, we would have 
a sufficient number of yearling hens to carry quite a 
breeding establishment. This house was about com- 
pleted in the month of May, when it mysteriously 
took fire, and was a complete loss. Fortunately the 
fire broke out at about ten o'clock in the morning, 
and, by the timely assistance of the boys of the Wilson 
Military Academy, under the able direction of the 
Military Officers of that Academy, we were able to 
confine it to this one building in spite of the fact that 
a high wind was blowing, which carried the sparks 
directly on to the other buildings. The water supply 
on the Farm proved more than adequate to the ne- 
cessities of the occasion, and the loss was entirely 
covered by insurance. 

As we desired to recognize the services of the 
young men, and at the suggestion of the Commanding 



38 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

Officer, medals were struck off commemorative of the 
fire and of the bravery displayed by these young men 
at this time, and were presented to them. 

An addition to the Breeding House, extending over 
the site of the burned building, was immediately 
erected, and the small building which had been used 
as a fattening pen for cockerels was rebuilt, and be- 
came the breeding pen for the production of unrelated 
cockerels. 

Also during this season the No. 3 Laying House 
was built, this being an exact duplicate of the No. 2 
House. 

Our selection of Breeders for 1910 was of course 
made from the birds which had completed their first 
ten months of pullet laying, in the houses Nos. 1 and 
2. The mortality during these months had been 
about 7 per cent. With our method of selection 
only 950 of these birds qualified to be used as yearling 
breeders, and these were placed in the Breeding 
House which had been prepared for them. We had 
made a most careful selection of cockerels, and these 
we had reared in two Colony Houses, placed in a 
large yard, where we were planning to eventually 
erect a Cockerel House for the housing of cockerels 
specially selected for breeders. 

The balance of the birds from Nos. 1 and 2, to- 
gether with our breeders of 1909, were sold, and we 
were able to face the hatching season of 1910 with a 
very decided step forward towards the realization of 




X 



THE BUILDING OF THE FARM 39 

the ideal yearling breeder, which The Corning Egg 
Farm is working nearer to each season. 

We placed in the Laying Houses Nos. 2 and 3 about 
2750 pullets, and our respect for the man who could 
successfully, yearly, produce and raise to maturity 
five thousand pullets, increased materially. 

Keeping Down Labor Bill 

The question of keeping down the labor bill on the 
Farm has at all times been a matter of careful study, 
and the machinery which is in use is of large capacity, 
enabling us to turn out whatever may be required in 
a very short space of time, and allowing the men to 
get at other work. As an illustration; the Clover 
Cutter on the Farm has a capacity of 3000 pounds 
an hour, cut in one-fourth-inch lengths, which enables 
us, when we are cutting green food, to turn out the 
amount required for the day, fill the tubs, and have it 
on the way to the Laying Houses, in less than fifteen 
minutes. 

The question of economy in time in handling the 
Incubator Cellar had been a problem, which we finally 
solved by piping gas into the Cellar and Brooder 
House, from the mains which are laid in the road 
passing the Farm. Thus we did away with the dan- 
ger of fire from sixteen incubator lamps (for we now 
had in the cellar sixteen machines) and the twenty 
Hover lamps, and the time and labor of cleaning and 
filling them. We placed a governor on the gas main, 



4 o THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

so that it was impossible to increase the pressure at 
any time of the day or night, and the gas worked 
most satisfactorily in incubation and brooding. 

The extensions on the Farm planned for 1910 were 
a Cockerel House, for the housing of breeding cock- 
erels, and the widening and lengthening of No. 1 Lay- 
ing House. These alterations were made in No. 1, so 
that it was an exact counterpart of Nos. 2 and 3. 
We also planned, as soon as the breeding season was 
over, and the 19 10 breeding pen was shipped to the 
various buyers who had purchased these birds for 
August delivery (and the entire pen was sold early 
in 1910), to add another section to the Breeder House, 
and to build a few more Colony Houses. Then we 
built what we thought would be an adequate Office to 
handle the business of the Farm, but which has since 
proved large enough for only one quarter of the pres- 
ent requirements. We increased the size of the Egg 
Packing Room, and installed a freezer with a capacity 
of over two thousand pounds of green bone. This 
practically covers the enlargements on the plant for 
1910. 

Adopted Hot Water Incubators 

For three years we had been investigating quietly 
the so-called Mammoth Incubators, or in other words, 
the Coal Heated, Hot Water Incubator, and before 
the close of the hatching season of 191 1 we had de- 
cided to install two such machines in a cellar 146 



THE BUILDING OF THE FARM 41 

feet long by 22 feet wide — this cellar to be built so 
as to allow us to extend the present Brooder House 
to the same length and width as the cellar. 

This cellar has since been constructed, with a 
Brooder House over it, so that we now have capacity 
for the incubation of 15,600 eggs at one time. 

The Hot Water System for heating the air supply- 
ing the Hovers has also been installed, and the 
Brooder House now has a capacity of some 12,000 
youngsters, before it is necessary to move any of 
■them to the Range. 

The Breeder House has again been enlarged, and, 
with the addition, a year hence, of another Breeding 
House, which is planned to be 180 feet long by 16 
feet wide, and a larger house for the breeding of un- 
related cockerels, The Corning Egg Farm will have 
reached the limit planned for since the inception of the 
Farm. We shall then have a capacity of 4500 sterile 
pullets, 3500 yearling hens for breeding purposes, and 
housing for 1200 cockerels. 

Why Great Farms Fail 

One reads of Poultry Farms carrying anywhere 
from twenty to forty thousand layers. Experience 
has taught us that the plant that gets beyond the size 
where those financially interested can supervise and 
know the condition of the Farm from one end to an- 
other daily, falls down of its own weight, as it is 
impossible to find men, unless financially interested, 



42 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

who will look after the endless details, which spell 
success or ruin on a large poultry plant. 

The planning and designing of all buildings on The 
Corning Egg Farm was done by ourselves, and all 
the construction has been done under our personal 
supervision. In the first two years we did not con- 
tract even the labor, employing simply " handy men " 
who worked with us under our instructions. Lat- 
terly, with the large amount of routine and office work 
pressing upon us, we found it to be wise economy to 
contract the labor, ourselves supplying the material 
and supervising the work. 

The buildings, with the arrangement of all equip- 
ment, are built in accordance with ideas thought and 
worked out by ourselves, on lines which seemed to us 
common sense, and economical in time and money for 
the handling of Poultry. 

Until within the last two years we had never seen 
another poultry farm, and those we have seen have 
only strengthened our conviction that no serious error 
has been made in laying out The Corning Egg Farm 
Plant. 



CHAPTER II 

Egg Farming the Most Profitable Branch of 
Poultry Keeping 

The profits are surer and larger. The reason this 
is not more widely known is because, in the past, few 
people have been able to resist the temptation of at- 
tempting to cover a number of the different branches 
of poultry culture. They have tried to get into the 
" fancy," and have dreamed of taking a blue ribbon at 
Madison Square Garden, or at some other large Show. 
Then the broiler branch has engrossed their attention, 
and from that they have gone on to soft roasters, and 
the other phases of the slaughter house side of poul- 
try for market purposes, and they have endeavored to 
cover all the different branches from which money is 
made in poultry, while entirely overlooking the fact 
that this is an age of specialization, and that the per- 
son who would succeed in any business must make up 
his mind to follow one branch of it, and bring that 
branch up to the highest efficiency. 

Developing the Great Layer 

From the start the Builders of The Corning Egg 
Farm, at Bound Brook, N. J., realized these condi- 

43 



44 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

tions, and were never led into side issues but gave their 
entire thought and attention to the development of a 
great layer, realizing that if this was to be accom- 
plished everything except an egg must be considered 
a by-product, and disposed of along the line of least 
resistance : in short carrying out the Scriptural in- 
junction, " This one thing I do." This one thought 
has been so successfully adhered to that the develop- 
ment of The Corning Egg Farm in five years has been 
remarkable in its production of the greatest laying 
type of hen yet produced, the Corning Strain Single 
Comb White Leghorn, placing the Farm head and 
shoulders above any other Egg Farm anywhere in the 
Country. 

Egg Farming is profitable not only when carried on 
in a large way, but, to the suburban dweller, a small 
number of hens in the back yard is a profitable in- 
vestment, and the system, as worked out on The Corn- 
ing Egg Farm, succeeds with a few hens, and enables 
the owner of a small plot of land to always have sani- 
tary, fresh eggs, to reduce his grocery bills, and ma- 
terially increase the pleasure of suburban life. 

Corning Method in Small Flocks 

Two illustrations of the working out of the Corn- 
ing Method in a small way would doubtless be of 
interest. While it is true that the 16 feet wide House 
is the most desirable from all standpoints, the length 
of the house may be anything from 20 feet to 200 



EGG FARMING MOST PROFITABLE 45 

feet, as the house is of sectional construction, 20 feet 
being a section. 

In the back yard of a gentleman living in Bound 
Brook was kept a small pen of birds, in all eighteen, 
composed of hens and pullets. These were a mix- 
ture of Barred Rocks and Rhode Island Reds. The 
pullets were of early hatch and should have come into 
eggs at least in the first week of October. The hens 
completed the moult much earlier than is generally 
expected, and still the owner was without eggs. 

Different methods, and nostrums of guaranteed 
egg producing foods, were tried, but all without suc- 
cess. After a call at The Corning Egg Farm, he 
stated that in one week and three days the first eggs 
were found in the nests, and the continuance of the 
Corning Method of feeding and working the hens 
produced eggs steadily through the Winter months, 
beginning with the middle of December, and the birds 
continued to lay more than an average output until 
they went into the moult the following Fall. 

A gentleman, who has a small place within a mile 
of The Corning Egg Farm, some four years ago pur- 
chased hatching eggs from our Breeding Pen, and the 
following Fall he also bought a small pen of Breeders. 
He aims to produce and carry through the Winter 
about one hundred pullets, and for four years now, 
by adhering strictly to the Corning Method, and with 
the Corning Strain Single Comb White Leghorns, he 
has met with a success almost phenomenal. 



46 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

Before he became conversant with the Corning 
Method (and with the stock he was then carrying be- 
fore beginning with the Corning Strain) his success 
was represented by zero, but to-day his balance sheets, 
which he displays with great pride, are extremely in- 
teresting reading. 

This gives a very fair illustration of two small 
flocks of different size, and of the results obtained. 

On Large Farms 

Turning now to the story of two egg farms which 
have been built within the last two years, one in New 
Jersey and the other in Pennsylvania, we find again 
most interesting and successful conditions. 

The Pennsylvania Farm started its first season by 
the purchase from us of fifteen hundred hatching- 
eggs. The owner came to our Farm and asked our 
assistance in planning his campaign of growth. His 
hatch from the fifteen hundred eggs, and he never 
had run an incubator before, was some 75 per cent, of 
all eggs set, and, by following the feeding methods 
prescribed, his mortality was very low. He placed 
in his Laying House that Fall some five hundred pul- 
lets, and in July, 1910, he had sent us an order for 
three thousand eggs for the season of 191 1. 

As he told this story on a visit to The Corning Egg 
Farm, in the month of February, 191 1, he had done 
the almost impossible, simply by following the Method 
laid down in the literature published by The Corning 




^iJ 



_»«f*** ,- * , ****t 





PANORAMIC VIEW OF PART OF THE CORNING EGG FARM. PHOTOGRAPHED IN OCTOBER, 1910. 



EGG FARMING MOST PROFITABLE 47 

Egg Farm, and had made money from the second 
month that his pullets had begun to lay. The quality 
of his eggs was such that he took over the trade of 
the largest hotel in a neighboring city, so far as he 
was able to supply their wants. 

The Jersey Egg Farm referred to is owned and run 
by a gentleman of advanced years. His first season's 
start was on a very small scale, but he was most suc- 
cessful in bringing his pullets to the laying point, and 
getting a remarkable output of eggs through the Win- 
ter months. In his district he was able to dispose of 
all his eggs to people who came to the door and paid 
the cash for them at prices ten to twenty cents per 
dozen above the market. The Corning Egg Farm 
received from him a very large order for hatching 
eggs for the season of 191 1, and this Fall he had an 
elegant flock of pullets ready to house and turn out 
an ever increasing supply of eggs for the coming 
Winter. 

These four illustrations are a few of the many which 
The Corning Egg Farm is able to point to as the re- 
sult of the use of its Method. 



CHAPTER III 

What is a Fresh Egg? — An Egg Should be Sani- 
tary as Well as Fresh 

The answer one generally gets to this query is, an 
egg so many hours old, and, as the average grocer 
prints the card, " just laid." " Fresh " and " new 
laid," as applied to eggs, mean nothing. Hens im- 
properly fed lay eggs not only often unpalatable, but 
that are carriers of disease. The hen's productive 
organs are so constructed that bacteria which she may 
take into her crop with impure food are passed into 
the egg. 

Manure Drainage to Drink 

An egg being eighty per cent, water, consider the 
effect on eggs produced by the farmers' flocks, where 
the water supply is mainly pools in the barn yard, 
which receive the drainage from the manure piles, 
and where the principal food supply is scratched out 
of manure heaps, consisting of undigested grain that 
has already passed through another animal. 

A hen must have a large proportion of animal food 
to lay well, and to produce rich, nutritious eggs. 

48 



WHAT IS A FRESH EGG? 49 

Diseased Meat to Eat 

Consider what in many instances this animal food 
consists of, carcasses of glandered horses, tuberculous 
cows, and putrid and maggoty meat. If a dish of 
putrid beef were placed on the table before people 
they would shrink back in horror, yet they will eat 
eggs which have been produced by hens which have 
been fed on these identical ingredients, apparently 
entirely oblivious of the fact that the hen performs no 
miracle in the production of an egg, but simply manu- 
factures the egg from the materials, whatever they 
may be, which she gathers into her system. 

As the Food, so the Egg 

The Chief of the Bureau of Chemistry, U. S. De- 
partment of Agriculture, says that while such con- 
ditions undoubtedly do exist it cannot be proven that 
such eggs are shipped from State to State, and that, 
therefore, it does not come under the jurisdiction of 
the Interstate Commerce Commission, and cannot 
be controlled under the National Pure Food Law. 

What is needed, then, is to know that eggs are not 
only fresh, but sanitary. The Corning Egg Farm 
layers are fed the best quality of grains and meals 
that can be procured. The animal food is supplied by 
fresh, green bone, cut and prepared daily. This bone 
comes from inspected cattle only, and the Farm is 
equipped with a large freezing plant for the purpose 



50 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

of carrying the bone in a perfectly fresh condition. 
The hens are housed and cared for under absolutely 
sanitary conditions. 

A Perfect Egg a Rarity 

The growing interest in Poultry Culture is bring- 
ing the Public to a realization of the fallacy of the 
old idea that " any egg not rotten must be a good 
egg.'' Comparatively few people have ever eaten a 
perfect egg. With the growth of real egg farms 
through the country, the time is approaching when the 
words " fresh " or " strictly fresh " will no longer 
mean anything to the purchaser, and the word " sani- 
tary " will take their place, and in some way the egg 
trade will be controlled, and the grocer, and butcher, 
and peddlers of eggs, will not be allowed to put cold 
storage eggs out as a sanitary article of food. 

Some of the New York papers are now beginning 
to agitate the question of Sanitary Eggs, notably the 
New York Commercial, which is a leader in this 
educational line. The day is coming when the person 
who is operating an egg farm that is known to pro- 
duce the egg of real quality will have no difficulty in 
obtaining the price that such an article is really worth. 

Unlimited Demand for Quality Eggs 

There is an unlimited demand for an egg which 
can be depended upon as to quality. The difficulty 
that the seller meets with when going to a hotel or 



WHAT IS A FRESH EGG? 51 

restaurant is the fact that the proprietor has been 
fooled many times. As they have put it, " people 
start well, and for a time keep up the quantity, and 
the quality is all right, but when the stringent time 
of year comes they fall down as to quantity, and a 
little later they have evidently been tempted to keep 
up the quantity by gathering eggs from other sources 
than their own, and then we meet with the question- 
able pleasure of having a patron at our tables return 
to us an tgg just ready to hatch." 

When one seeks private trade for the output of his 
hennery it is possible to obtain extreme prices, pro- 
vided the buyers can be convinced of the absolutely 
high quality of what they are purchasing. 

In New York, last year, for a few weeks, a man, 
gotten up as a veritable " hay-seed " farmer, sold eggs 
from house to house through the streets running 
from 45th to 65th, in large quantities. They were 
all marked in red ink with the date on which they 
were said to be laid. 

He did not last very long, and his liberty was cur- 
tailed, and for some time he graced one of the free 
institutions where iron bars obstruct the view of the 
surrounding country. It developed that this enter- 
prising crook was buying the culls from cold storage 
houses, and, in a basement on 43d Street near the 
North River, he had eight girls steadily at work mark- 
ing the alleged dates when these eggs were laid. 

The difficulty seems to be that when you reach the 



52 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

question of a " fresh egg," everyone, almost, becomes 
a fakir. The grocers, many of them, buy case after 
case^of storage eggs, and, when the retail price reaches 
sixty-five cents a dozen for so called " fresh eggs," 
they are supplying all buyers with the cold storage 
product, in quantities practically unlimited. Their 
counters are always decorated with baskets of these 
" just laid, perfectly fresh eggs." 

Therefore, it becomes necessary for the Egg Farmer 
to satisfy customers, beyond peradventure, as to his 
ability to himself supply the goods which he contracts 
to deliver, and after once doing this his experience 
will be the same as that of The Corning Egg Farm, 
not to be able to keep and properly look after enough 
hens to turn out half the eggs he could sell at profita- 
ble prices, because the price he asks does not dis- 
courage customers who are willing to pay well for a 
really satisfactory article. 

The following is the basis on which The Corning 
Egg Farm makes all its contracts for table eggs. 



WHAT IS A FRESH EGG? 53 

SUNNY SLOPE FARM 

(The Great Corning Egg Farm) 
produces 

Eggs for the Table 

"WHICH CANNOT BE SURPASSED" 

WHITE, 
THEY ARE: STERILE, 
SANITARY, 

FRESH, 

STERILE — The hens producing Eggs for the 
Table are housed by themselves and their 
egg3 do not contain the life germ, giving a 
purity not otherwise obtained. 

SANITARY, _ because of the clean, fresh air 
housing and best quality of pure food and 
water. People are learning the necessity of 
investigating the source from which Eggs 
come more carefully than milk or water, as 
it is now known that Eggs can be a greater 
carrier of disease than either milk or water. 

FRESH, _ because eggs laid one day are deliv- 
ered the next. 

OUR METHODS an d feeding formulas give these 
eggs a delicious flavor, peculiarly their own. 

EVERY EGG so id by us is produced on Sunny 
Slope Farm, and is guaranteed as above 
stated. 

once bought, always sought 
Sunny Slope Farm 

BOUND BROOK NEW JERSEY. 



CHAPTER IV 

Preparation of Eggs for Market 

If high prices are to be obtained for eggs they 
must not only be good, but have a look of " class," to 
the would be purchaser. They must be spotlessly 
clean, and, as far as possible, each dozen should 
present a uniform appearance. 

One is able to know each day the exact price of the 
class of eggs which he is selling, for the Egg Market 
is like the Stock or Bond Market, and one who is in 
the Egg business is dealing with a commodity which 
at all times is salable at a price. At The Corning 
Egg Farm we receive daily the reports from the Ex- 
change, as given in the New York Commercial. 
These are cut out and placed in a scrap book, so that, 
from year to year, we are able to tell exactly what 
the conditions were on any given date, and form a 
very close idea as to what can be expected in regard 
to prices. And so we have an absolute basis of prices 
for contracts. 

The nearest quotation to the egg which is produced 
by The Corning Egg Farm is what is termed " State 
Pa. and nearby Hennery, white, fancy, large." This 
we take as a basis and arrange our prices from it 

54 




30 DOZEN CORNING SANITARY FRESH EGGS 
READY TO SHIP 



PREPARATION OF EGGS FOR MARKET 55 

daily, adding the advance which the Corning sani- 
tary table egg brings. 

It is quite impossible, with the growth of the coun- 
try and the demand for better things in all food prod- 
ucts, to over-do the production of Sanitary Eggs. 

The following pages show the manner in which the 
quotations are placed in our Scrap Book. 



56 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

New York commercial 



OCTOBER 16 1911 

EOCS. — necetotr- laat Satirdar were 8.757.- 
.I,c »erk. Ul.UJo. aluco Mareb i. 4.00I.W1 Ml 
T^e demand at th« cl.>*« tor »eslero »ab » 
Mine aort seller-. roiMd 11 dJlIlcult to *u«l 
tale 'prueji. CoojuiddiIou It 'airly sood. 
reevtvtrs liave becu un-ible u» And an outlet 
loir re-?ir>ls mat «-ere uiontly x>( Irrejular qua! 
M.u> dvalTS ore 'Irawiof; m-0'1 Itrtlr lull hililli 
SCO oii.ctb am HKMlDi-d to u»o bf.raje rju 
<L»^1>- cradv-J wet-teru are salable at 2t>Ca<&M 
flr*le at 23C/2&C. Low tfradvs U.ve uo fc^e.1 ta 
tacit lot belllrtg accora,lUkT to rouflt. rrinie .1 
i-tsa are ttejidy aid ««nled. Ear i tub 
titYrn-e ,,-38 raielv oveed He I-e* laid lieni 
CC38 <«;:'» too ator featuro of tie, Mttirt 
^liu'dar rvbllra adronelic 2r. Tne re.. 
tre lalling off. Jiorl boy.T-* .eero Quite wn 
ru r>ai WaUc tor U»e flirin-r and lit Jor brov 
Btate. Pa., sod de»rby ScbJierj 

Bute. Pa..' and' nearby' beriwrj 

rrblle fair to food .. ■ e- 36 <S 

Nearby, cattieied. ttblte ■.-.-• w> I" 

oit"e«d l>ro»o I niueA. colors 21 & : 
«„,,£ g.tbered. ^blte.....,,. gd/ « 

B|W. «r.U ™ i 

seco'fda':";;.'.'.'.".^";'.'.".!'"' 20 «« 

Tfcdrda * T @ 

Held, frcsb. poor to (air-,. I.. 16 J* 

Dirulav <& t % ° -. »*§ 

Dlrtt**. VXt <» '»" • •••--- } J w 

Poof ttj food ■'•■',*' 'nu.,. 

B»fngem«r. ■ Bran. ator*so Sti!3. -°M>'« 

IMrds --. J° $ 

xK««' ".:::*- :.*.v ..v.*.'. v." ..v.". « u 

Any (wore- ''tote oX ^o*' 



OCTOBER 17. 1911 






pa3Sln£ frorq Or: 



.M.j,. 



reported. Supplies! 

Ma- But fori 
buyer** mac B 

of lie year,! 



Tery Irregu 
Buyer* at 
Id paying the last flgi 
Offerings (.bat coot, 






lirunUea cgfii 

»de. <u only crnala byy^cs wi: 

isc «?c^« ar© soli in- slowly April 

at 20'82oy 1 c. Sma 

nd brown frT-fa ar 

s wer« ,o«adi<7 sui 



ffered at 21c« aDd Mo/a 
le'. of ncnrtiT white i 

i.,:l,i. iiLa-i lftte aJvajic 
i. 

nearb7 nen.-ierr 
rbf benneirjr. 






41. @ 43 



f«lr io gooU ^*J <9 

iratheie<t. white :«) fid 

beaoen. taecf t 80 (ffi 

. browa A ttlled calor# 24 tS 

goinered, HiiilW.'. 26 <sJ 



firs'- a 



NO. *r- 

No a 

ppor ;o I»ur 



is ii > 



i"h ltd* .. 



NEW YORK CJTY 



OCTOBER 1& 1911 



i *U3gs.— Receipt* ye«trdaey 
Wblcti iaoluded *onic 900 com 
! as cases. Tto marfjt bUowb d( 
j slocfl onr taut rerlcw. Buy* 
I uold vitjyrtTuely, moay prefer; 
tuwiiles, and subseq-jenUy adji 
i lot*. Tbe rectlpta from a 



oot taking 



any doaJert f> 



, 20 ^c per dftfei 






prtcea were read.llr rfusulned. 
State. Pa.. &bJ oet^bj Htnoary 

ffbito, fancy large .... 

State. Ffl., »Jid nearby Deanery 
o gooa 



Nearl.y. 



__._.'ie4. 

hoooery. fawy. 



eIjM color* 






IT *I 30 
Jf3 @ 10 



•Dirties, poor t» Iftlr « (0 

<Im?vb*^ prime .... . jj{ ^ 

Poor to gftpd -.-• *°,*' l 

ftefrtgerattr. tirats. dtorsij* P*'^- *X™si 

Secooda. storage paid J9 9 

Thlrda * *« ® 

Poor ^3 Q 

f»lxtl« " 13 © 



OCTOBEK 19. 1911 



tbo price of t^arbj white e^e». 
y- larg,? renchicg 4Sr245c twl f*1r (o go-xl 
12c GatU-red wbitoe sold at S0<g42r. .I 1 '* 3 
■ range tK-Jrjg d\ie tb «VtrvC!*» tiuiaUoo In 
lt_y of tbc off* 1 LQfla ffutK-y. bto«B 
pr! but n^i blgrtor. Tbe paajlit,n oj 
i 1b entirely as la*t repoftetl Trade 
beep of a selective coaitACtcr. the Ccert , 



uoder gradei 



^tra Cm 



, .seia 



»uU 



rbt faennery 
irby tieoccry 
gathered ^brtta 



food 

", whrl 

/. fancy, 

■□ ft Cilsed co)0 
■t&I, vbvte 



2-3 'l 

aa tg 

20 td 

17 «» 



Tlurdt 
Poor , 

■Ductus 



good 10 <3 

r p arsts. siorage paid - 
sV'rage r a 'd 



20 (d 

10 a 

16 r t ( 

13 & 

13 ia 



PREPARATION OF EGGS FOR MARKET 57 

New York Commercial 



OCTOBER 20.1911 

KGG-S —Receipts yeafrrtay "ere 11.360 r&i 
SO tar as western eegs ore concerned the general 
KMrtici shows slgrm of weakuef*. Bnd TrUe " 

pUts of Talr to medium rorts are far In < 
of tbo demand, and about ever; /<•■ el». 
burdened *irb no* uniutettuu». row 4f ofiy lota.. 
lo the ritra first < Us*. v. ill new exceed 27-:, 
unites 'the losses are e.terHiobatly HgUt. I'nrlei 
Armies have no fixed, Talue. aaiea to^np teporidd 
• t such, varloOa prteos fl* io bo oX little yalde -In 
fnrmtnc a ta*)le of quotations. Storage ejrgs l 
rerj' <pii«S. but about steady as qo*'(eo. 5 
imd#' lc irry xouc'b exercised oTer the lecVn; 
*>olelon of lb* Board of nesltli prohibiting Hto 
All*, of "leakers" tyriteb they bold " are the satm 
bs ''spot" eg?5. Nearby T<Dlte eggs are very 
Fcfirce, and fctronc at 4& as ap iodide prUe. 
ifcrowrti were left- at 3033Jit pet tioxen. 
State, Pa., and nearby hennery 
, uhlte^ fancy, law ....... 4* © . 

State, Pa., and oeactjy hennery 

white, falc to coodp.... as Q 43 

Near*-.)*, cMue-*ed. white 30 eg -53 

Brown, banner?, tape/ 80 (S 81 

Gathered, brown & mixed color* 24 i 20 

Western, gathered, wtito 26 ca 33 

I EAttB* 80 >ft 81 

r.xfrn. ttsln ■. 28 Q. 2« 

I FlfsW .. 23 Q p 

' Seconds * 20 <5 22 

(Third* ...- 17. A lo 

, Hflid. fxesb. poor to .fair 16 @ 19 

.Dirties. W*. 1 .' IT m IB 

DJriiea, No 2 1CH® 10% 

JoirUoa, poor to fair 13 @ 10 

tcboctu. prJoie „ -» ie, « 

l Ptor to- good JO @ 15 

tefrlgorator. firsts, etorago paid 20 ^ 21 

Seconds, storage paid ........ 10 '(ft 19',5 

Third* 13 fej )8 

Poor «... 19 @ 1ft 

XNytic* u a 17 

COUNTRY PRODUCE MartKETS. 

tJTX^P -TV*.. .4. gSQ 



OCTOBER 21. 1911 



EGGS. — Receipts yesterday 
Cearby heuuery e»s were the 

"hit*** a^d^ J ' _ 

;ro*lng scarcity of the^iT nearby fea<y ef* 

Jwa tbe week epeeed, and as certain buyti 

cud prices skyward. Large sites of chalk wbli 

,re now quotable at «@Wc. aad brown* 3li$ : *2 

.liesc arc regular, winter prices, and Hie imc 

efin to think dOAgOTousLy blgli for free evjt> 

iicut Western es** B| v wealc and urt> es att 

mettled. Late, teojClpt* ,fia*e teen of very rr 

Otular ouallrjr, fWr lots contalnlrft 

■■■■.,\ to tinier tha) bl.cWst dss Jfl. ai 

ge eggs ere* In. buxcre" tasoi, 

ortnor raog« of prkB*. 

>(at« Pa., tod tsarby- kel&eryA 

wi.fie rtacy, lort* 
State. Pa . and btaro: 

» Lite, fair Ic r>o] 
venrby. whites,, badly 
Ji-owp. bpneery. faftcy 
♦atb^red, proiVtt 3* t»lied ^olorj 



. aeWted 



I tor 

la. >»i."jut- to* 



«7 @ 

3S <& 



gaUi^iciL 



Frrsts ..'.V. 

TUrda /.*!'.'."•'!"! 
p Held, freab.^i-oor 



3U ^ 

^i '.g 

-J4 <y 



.. Eu 



Pefrjger: 
becood 
Tbirds' 



1, 


| 


t«4t 

St 


■u 


1 


18 


'J) 


ii 



<n Tfce Ir-- ' *•*•* 



OCTOBER 23. 1911 



^v* close ' 
a_t? by tlie selling' Intere 
■s. The- tone has be«il 

only ' aouiU lots ! 

a flrW TJndcr 

p. Buyej> *t|1U 

npJee. and Bubsequelitjy 



Btati 






SI <$ 



1 1 tea, badly mixed. 

urowa, Deanery, fancy .; 

Oathered, orown & mlied colora 

. Western, gathered, white 28 (J 35 

Extras ..i.,... 80 10 81 

Extra, firsts , _ . 26 ® 28 

Flrrtft 23 Q 2& 

Seconds 20 wS 22' 



Talrd* 

Held, fresh, poor to fair., 

Ulrtlft. No. 1 \,,... 



OCTOBER 24. 1911 

'fjuOS.— Kec-Lpls yaWtrdny V«rfe 7.<J0 case*. 
Tbo cjertet 'oveoodT qolttly. ao* . tht-re were- ao 
fci;oa of any imprvvopjeat In late condltjooa.' 
Ltftcv accumulations *vyN "canWd owr from' last 
W«ft* and as-tlio qualify Hfta-mora or l«w lrresu- 
prices wexQ artlyatcd awgttHpa to mtrit. New 
inib (luailu is still s'yry Rtwce. and cloaely 
gnidcd lota^tliat .will cqtor ihv .cJaislflcaHon of 
dstra. fli'iw tu-ll quicUly ut a rniina pi\« of 2Sc. 
A very good E ra 'l e l3 otTafed W aCQryl'jC. Lota 
H-at arc. badly mixed wUU froiU ami ^Ul eg;;a. 
and ar« moro or less weufc bodJcfl, competu with 
refi-ieerntora, the luiter recelriug profei-ence. The 
uioveniejt. Luw^ver. lu styrtlct^ £tpm flrsl hauils. 
Ins been Itterfered ft-ltb during t*Q piaat 10 days 
liy undnoi-able went her. UcDncry wbjte and 
brown cKi'3 nt-e so scarce ■K-lnler prices prevail. 
Wltltea, Jarge sIzl, go (iultkly at 47©jOc. lam y 
bruwas. however, rarr-ly esceed 32e-. 
State. Pa., and naarby hConery 

wlilte. fancy, large 41 1$ CO 

S'nt<?, r».. uud nearby, elected 

white, fair to good .' ; 3S @ 45 

Nrjrijy. wnllM, baoly mlied.... 30 fc) ;0 

Urowu, beoaery, fancy SI (J SO 

Gathered, bir>»-o & mtied colors 24 <tf 80 

Western, gathered, wblte 2S (J 83 

Kiiifls 80 ta Hi 

KitrO. firsts 2U & 1$ 

I'lrats „ 23 Q K 

Brconds ,....» 20 Cfl 2J 

riilrda .'. IT Q 10 

Hi-id. tr^sh. poor to fair 15 @ 11> 

DUtlc*. ,\o. 1 IT ffs 1« 

Dimes. No 2 , 10% « 16'4 

Dirties, poor to fair jl cd) 1& 

Cl.cki. prime , 10 ua ^. 

1'oor to good 10 fill 15 

Xtcrrl^eratur. firsts. *torxgo paid 20 <d 21 

Setoods. storage paid 1» >9H 

Thirds 16 W 18 

Poor' 13 (tf 30 

Dirties 13 « it 

7- 

«iETTER PRICES- FOB u " u 



CHAPTER V 

The Selection of the Breed — The Strain is of 
Utmost Importance 

To a man engaging in any branch of Poultry Cul- 
ture the selection of the proper breed is of grave im- 
portance, but to the man who is planning an Egg 
Farm it is without doubt of graver importance than 
where any other branch of the poultry business is to 
be carried on. 

For many years different localities have believed 
that there was very decided merit in the different 
colored egg shells. The Culture of Boston was cer- 
tain that the dark shell contained an egg with a richer 
flavor, while New York and vicinity would believe in 
nothing but the white shelled egg. It is, however, 
noted with interest that the Culture of Boston has 
discovered that the color of the shell really has noth- 
ing to do with the flavor of the egg, and to-day the 
rigid adherence to a premium paid for the dark shelled 
egg, generally throughout the New England States, 
is rapidly passing into history. 

As The Corning Egg Farm was located within a 
few miles of New York City the breeds which laid 
the white shelled egg were the only ones worthy of 
consideration, and, in the study of the question, it was 

58 ' 




in 

u 

3 
< 



< 

O 

O 

w 
o 

3 

u 

w 



- 
w 

— I 
H 



SELECTION OF THE BREED 59 

found there was another important matter confront- 
ing the egg farmer, as to the breed which he should 
keep, whether a setter, or a non-setter. On an egg 
farm, where hundreds of layers are to be kept, if 
any of the Asiatics, or so called American Breeds, 
were kept, they would be a source of considerable 
added expense, first, in the way of loss of eggs dur- 
ing their numerous broody periods ; second, in the nec- 
essary buildings in which to carry the " broody bid- 
dies " until they have become sensible, and are in a 
proper frame of mind to be returned to the Laying 
House. This might look on its face a small affair, 
but success to The Corning Egg Farm has come 
through watching every corner, and while sparing no 
needed expenditure, avoiding unnecessary and foolish 
outlay. 

So, to the man who would really meet with a large 
success, all the breeds which lay the dark shelled egg, 
because of their setting propensity, must be elimi- 
nated. 

All the members of the Mediterranean family are 
layers of the white shelled egg, and are what is termed 
" non-setting." 

S. C. White Leghorns Outclass All 

Before deciding we looked the different members 
of this family over with considerable care, and we 
found that the Single Comb White Leghorn is the 
fowl that out-classes all the others for the purpose of 



60 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

an egg farm. It is a bird, where properly bred, of 
great hardiness and stamina. It readily adapts it- 
self to all conditions of climate, and, where the right 
" strain " is procured, it is never a disappointer as to 
the number, size, and the class of eggs which it pro- 
duces. We, therefore, decided to adopt the Single 
Comb White Leghorn, and we have outlined, in a 
previous chapter, how we went to work to build up 
the unequaled Corning Strain, by the most careful 
selection, and scientific mating. 

Prof. Gowell, at the Maine Agricultural Station, 
carried on his breeding with Barred Plymouth Rocks, 
and it is interesting to note that his average for some 
eight years, taking his star performers, was 134.27 
eggs per hen for twelve months, while at The Corning 
Egg Farm the flocks of fifteen hundred pullets aver- 
aged per hen, for ten months laying, 143.25 eggs in 
1909, and 145. 1 1 eggs in 1910. Here was a differ- 
ence of two months in time, and yet the large flocks, 
taken as a whole, not weeding out a few star per- 
formers, surpassed the twelve months' record of the 
Barred Plymouth Rocks at the Maine Station by al- 
most nine eggs in 1909, and ten eggs in 19 10. This 
significant fact made considerable impression on a 
number of breeders in the neighborhood of Boston, 
with the result that, in the last two years, The Corn- 
ing Egg Farm has supplied a large number of hatch- 
ing eggs and considerable breeding stock for farms 
in New England. 



SELECTION OF THE BREED 61 

As one gentleman from Boston pointed out, even 
with the difference in price between the brown and 
the white egg, he found that he could not really afford 
to continue with the breeds laying the brown egg, 
for the Leghorn, in numbers, more than made up for 
the slight difference in price between the two colors, 
in the Boston Market. And, as he still further 
pointed out, it took less food to supply the Leghorn 
than it did any of the larger breeds, and this, of 
course, was another source of economy. 

It should be remembered that the " Strain " of any 
breed is most important. One may purchase White 
Leghorns where the inbreeding has been so great that 
they are not capable of laying eggs in large numbers, 
and the percentage of fertility from the hatching 
standpoint in such birds will be a most uncertain 
quantity. Such chicks as may be hatched will be far 
from strong, and the mortality will run into figures 
which will dishearten anyone. 

Line Breeding — Not Inbreeding 

In the building up of a great strain of birds it is 
necessary to " line breed," for, if the old theory of 
introducing new blood to prevent inbreeding, and the 
method of introducing the new blood, was, as is done 
in so many places even to-day, by introducing males 
from other sources, the entire system falls down. 
Nothing is accomplished and time is worse than 
wasted. The possibility of handing down the virtues 



62 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

of mother to daughter, and of father to son, is elimi- 
nated. If all the qualities of a given " Strain " are to 
be handed down line breeding must be adhered to in 
the strictest sense. Inbreeding, however, must be 
avoided, or disaster will follow. 

How Corning Farm Produces Unrelated Cockerels 

The Method of The Corning Egg Farm is as fol- 
lows : a pen of carefully selected yearling hens is set 
aside in what is known as " the pen for the produc- 
tion of unrelated cockerels." A most carefully 
selected cockerel to every twelve hens is placed in the 
pen. Incubators are run with eggs from this pen 
only, and the resulting chicks are marked before being 
placed in the Brooder House. The cockerels which 
appear with this marking are grown to maturity, those 
coming up to our standard being selected to head the 
breeding pens for the following season. The marked 
pullets are placed in the Laying Houses with the other 
pullets, but are never selected for yearling breeders 
on our own Farm. In pens sold to others we always 
furnish unrelated cockerels. 

Having hatched a sufficient number of chicks to 
produce about four hundred cockerels, no further 
eggs are set from this pen, and, at the end of the 
season, all the birds comprising this pen are sold. 

This Method of line breeding hands down the lay- 
ing quality which has been so developed, and which is 
being increased from season to season in an unbroken 



SELECTION OF THE BREED 63 

line, but inbreeding is absolutely avoided, and the 
vigor of the stock is maintained. 

Perhaps, in closing the chapter, nothing could be 
more apt than a letter received from a Breeder of 
Crystal White Orpingtons, in the neighborhood of 
one of the large Western Cities. The letter-head, in 
large type, states, " Breeder of Crystal White Orping- 
tons, the Great Winter Layer." The contents of the 
letter is as follows : 

" As I am now planning to go into the Egg busi- 
ness, and desire to follow your method as closely 
as possible, and, while in this locality there is not 
such a marked preference for the white egg over the 
brown, still the White Leghorn, of a good strain, 
doubtless outlays any other breed known, and the 
shape of its egg is such that it is superior for table 
use, to any laid by the dark shelled family. It, 
therefore, is my purpose, as rapidly as possible to 
work into a large flock of Leghorns, with Corning 
stock as a basis." 

It will be noted that the gentleman is a breeder of 
Crystal White Orpingtons, and prints in large type 
on his letter-head, " The Great Winter Layer," but 
that when it comes down to " brass tacks," from the 
standpoint of the hen which will produce an egg 
for table use, and the hen that will give you the 
requisite number to make the dollars, the Breeder of 
the Crystal White Orpingtons wants to put in the 
Corning Strain of Single Comb White Leghorns. 



CHAPTER VI 

Advantages of the Large Flock System — Reduces 

Cost of Housing and Economizes in Time and 

Labor 

For many years the floor space per hen has been 
an interesting study to anyone reading poultry liter- 
ature, either in books or in magazine articles. 

Some fifteen years ago it was generally considered 
for a hen to do at all well she must have at least 
twenty square feet of floor space. Later, the num- 
ber of feet was divided by half, and for some time 
ten square feet was considered to be the very least 
a hen could possibly do with. Then we come to the 
four square feet period, and this created a great deal 
of controversy. Many writers declared that it was 
impossible for any hen, no matter how housed, to do 
well in such a restricted space. At times, some vision- 
ary writer pictured a flock in one house, of what 
was then considered an enormous size. One Pro- 
fessor of poultry went so far as to state that he 
had successfully kept some three hundred hens in one 
flock, and had obtained most satisfactory results. 
This statement, however, was denied by others, and 
the Professor wrote an article in which he set forth 

64 







< 



H 




J 



ADVANTAGES OF THE LARGE FLOCK 65 

that, while he had done this, he would never think of 
suggesting that the average poultry-keeper attempt it. 
In his statement there were some truths that it is 
well to remember, namely, that the average poultry- 
keeper would not give the flock the care and super- 
vision necessary to keep it in health. In other words, 
the poultry-keeper would not attend to the necessary 
cleanliness, and disease would break out, and, in the 
average poultry house, under such conditions, this 
would mean the total annihilation of the flock. 

Draughts the Stumbling Block 

As economy of space and labor is one of the main 
factors in getting a commercial profit where poultry 
is operated with, the large flock system appealed 
most strongly to The Corning Egg Farm. Long 
houses, under one roof, without divisions, had been 
attempted by others, and the endeavor to discover the 
reason for the failures, where this had been at- 
tempted, was a very interesting study. It was found 
that the main stumbling block in houses of this type 
was draughts. To eliminate the draughts was the 
problem we then undertook to solve. It was found 
that if the houses were built in sections of twenty 
feet, and the partitions which divided the house into 
roosting closets were extended twelve inches beyond 
the dropping boards, and were carried from the floor 
to the roof, the air currents were broken Up, and the 
difficulty of draughts was overcome. 



66 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

Houses, as we believed in constructing them, were 
expensive, unless it was possible to carry a very 
large number of layers successfully in them. In 
studying the two hundred and twenty-five pullets as 
they worked contentedly in the No. i Laying House, 
which was but twelve feet wide, we became con- 
vinced that it was perfectly possible in a house six- 
teen feet wide by one hundred and sixty feet in 
length to carry fifteen hundred layers. This, to be 
sure, allowed the hen only a little over two square 
feet of floor space, with the dropping boards in- 
cluded. But, as we figured it, the hen also had the 
entire house for floor space, and, while it is true that 
fourteen hundred and ninety-nine sisters were her 
near neighbors, they all enjoyed the same large space 
to roam in. A house, then, of this size, accommoda- 
ting fifteen hundred layers, was not an expensive 
house per bird, and, when you consider that the con- 
struction was such that the up-keep was practically 
nothing, it became not only not an expensive house, 
but really a very cheap one. 

The success of the fifteen hundred layers in one 
house proved itself at once, and we never have seen 
the slightest necessity for altering the plan of the 
Laying House, as we first laid it out. 

2,000 Birds to a House 

The large flock system works economies, then, in 
housing, in the amount of labor necessary to care for 



ADVANTAGES OF THE LARGE FLOCK 67 

the birds, and in gathering the eggs. And there is 
no doubt but that a house of considerably greater 
length, with a flock ranging as high as two thousand 
birds, could successfully be handled. In fact, on one 
farm which has been in existence over twenty-five 
years, a Corning Method Laying House of two hun- 
dred feet in length has been in operation now for 
twelve months, and the owners write us that it is the 
most successful house on their entire farm, and that 
as rapidly as possible they are rebuilding all their Lay- 
ing Houses, and making them of this type. 



CHAPTER VII 

What is the Winter Layer? — The Properly 
Hatched and Reared Pullet 

Many people have a very erroneous idea with re- 
gard to getting Winter eggs. They seem to think 
any hen should produce eggs in Winter. The hen 
generally moults in the early Fall, and Nature has 
provided this time of rest for her. The egg organs 
cease to produce, for the hen finds she has all she can 
do to supply the necessary material for her new dress, 
and this is a very serious drain on her system. The 
natural time, however, for a pullet to begin to lay 
is when she reaches maturity, and, as the pullet 
hatched in the early Spring, properly cared for, should 
come into eggs in the early Fall, the pullet, then, is 
the Winter layer. 

[t must still be remembered that the domesticated 
fowl of to-day is a bird of evolution. In its wild 
state a pullet did not begin to lay eggs in the Fall, 
and neither did she lay a large number of eggs at 
any time. With the coming of Spring, and an abun- 
dance of succulent green food, and large quantities of 
animal food in the shape of a great variety of worms 
and insects, she laid and hatched her brood. There- 

68 




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WHAT IS THE WINTER LAYER? 69 

fore, to have successful Winter layers, it is necessary 
to produce as nearly as possible the Spring-time con- 
ditions. 

Must Feed Green Food 

On The Corning Egg Farm, when the pullets are 
brought up from the Range into the Laying Houses, 
the majority of them have already been laying on 
the Range, and they are in fit condition to be brought 
strongly into eggs. They are fed a large quantity of 
succulent green food, in the form which, perhaps, 
is more delicious to the hen than any other, that is, 
Sprouted Oats. The quantity of animal food in their 
mash is increased, and, with the vigorous digging for 
the grain in the deep litter, the problem of Winter 
eggs is solved, and from day to day, the number of 
eggs coming from the pullet houses, increases very 
rapidly. 

On the other hand, the pullet which has completed 
its first ten months of laying is well advanced in the 
moult, and is becoming a yearling hen. Those quali- 
fying under the drastic examination for perfect type 
are selected for the next year's Breeders, and are re- 
moved to the Breeding Houses, which have been thor- 
oughly disinfected and put in the most sanitary con- 
dition to receive them. Those not reaching the 
Corning Standard are marketed, as we sell culls only 
to the butcher. 

The aim in handling the yearling hen is not to get 



;o THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

eggs from her during the Winter, but to give her a 
long rest, and to build her up, and put her in the 
pink of condition for the coming breeding season, and 
it is the aim at The Corning Egg Farm to have as 
few eggs produced as possible from the breeding pens 
until about the first of January, when an increased 
amount of animal food is added to the daily ration for 
the purpose of bringing the hens into eggs, and within 
a few days there is a very rapid increase in the number 
of eggs from these pens. 

It must be remembered that the profit in Winter 
eggs is made from pullets, and to be successful in this 
line the Laying Houses must be well stocked with 
them. 

Yearling and two year old hens are the proper 
breeding females. The Corning Egg Farm Method 
is one of continuous rotation, as follows: 

Incubator to Brooder House. 

Brooder House to Range. 

Range to Laying House. Those selected as com- 
ing up to the Corning Standard go to the Breeder 
House. 

At the end of the second year the Breeders are all 
sold for foundation stock. 

This gives an opportunity to the public to procure 
the very best Breeders at a most reasonable price. 



CHAPTER VIII 

A Great Laying Strain — The Selection of 
Breeders to Produce It 

The first requisite is to breed from a mature ani- 
mal, from a real yearling hen. The term " yearling 
hen " is a misnomer, for, when she is twelve months 
of age she has not as a rule developed into a true 
yearling hen. The female has five months of growth, 
ten months of laying, and then she moults, which 
process varies in duration from eight to ten weeks. 

Eighteen Months Old 

When she has completed the moult, her entire anat- 
omy has undergone a change, and she is a mature ani- 
mal, about eighteen months of age, a fit specimen to 
reproduce her kind, and her off-spring will be strong 
and vigorous youngsters. 

The great mortality one reads of among chicks can 
be traced more to breeding from immature females 
than to any other cause. 

The general method of selecting breeders for a 
great many years has been by the use of " trap nests." 
Surely the use of a mechanical device is a poor method 

7i 



12 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

to determine what hens are proper for breeding pur- 
poses, and really the trap nest tells you nothing. 

In every pen there are daily a number of eggs which 
are not laid in the nest at all. To what particular 
hen does the attendant credit eggs found in hollows 
scooped out in corners under the dropping boards ? It 
is a peculiarity of " Biddy " that where she sees an egg 
she almost always decides it is a good and proper 
place for her to lay another. Thus, on some days, 
where trap nests are in use, it may be necessary to 
make a great number of guesses as to which hen did 
not lay in the traps, but on the floor. 

Trap Nests a Failure 

There is another reason why trap nests really tell 
you nothing. Take two females of a pen whose num- 
bers are one and two. For the first few weeks No. 
i surpasses her sister No. 2 in the production of eggs. 
To this pen, clover has been the green food fed, and 
of this ingredient the farm has run short. The ship- 
ment has been expected daily but did not arrive, and, 
because of that failure, for four or five days no other 
green food was provided. Then cabbage was re- 
sorted to to take the place of the clover. The pen 
having been without green food for a number of days 
was fairly greedy for it, and good, crisp cabbage 
suits the palate of many hens exactly, and they are 
very apt to overdo the matter in eating it. A great 
layer must be a large eater, and so hen No. 1 gorged 




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A GREAT LAYING STRAIN 73 

herself on the cabbage. Her digestive organs were 
upset, and for a number of weeks she ceased laying, 
while hen No. 2 continued to shell out a fair number 
of eggs. The owner of these birds, when it came 
time for the selection of the breeders, expressed his 
great disappointment over hen No. 1. She had 
started so well, and then had blown up entirely, and 
so she is passed up, and hen No. 2 is accepted as a 
breeder. 

Now, if the anatomy of these two birds had been 
studied, it would have been found at once that hen 
No. 1 was much better qualified to take a place in 
the breeding pen than hen No. 2. The mere fact that 
the trap nest record of any female shows a phenom- 
enal number of eggs laid in ten or twelve months does 
not necessarily prove that she is a proper animal to 
breed from. Post-mortem examinations show in 
many cases that they are freaks, and, while they have 
laid a great number of eggs, there was much to be 
desired in regard to the eggs, as to their size, shape, 
and color. As a matter of fact it would have been 
a great mistake to have bred from such an individual. 

Type Reproduces Type 

It must be remembered that type produces type, and 
the only proper way to select birds for the breeding 
pen which will produce progeny capable of great egg 
production is to thoroughly understand their anat- 
omy. It is impossible to produce a great performer 



74 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

in any line unless the animal is of a build capable of 
the performance. No one would expect to breed a 
two-minute trotter from a Shetland Pony. 

The hen which is capable of becoming an ideal layer 
must have a deep keel, a long body, and, as she faces 
out, she must have an appearance of broadness, and 
must be the shape of a wedge back to the point where 
the wings join the body. 

The Large Flock System is carried on in the Breed- 
ing Pen on The Corning Egg Farm, and it has been 
most successful. It has been found that the small 
pen does not produce the high fertility continuously 
which the Large Flock System does. During the 
season of 1910, for long periods, the fertility ran as 
high as 96% . and as early as the first of March it 
was above 90%. In the season of 191 1, eggs in- 
cubated in the early part of February, ran above 
91%, and during the season there were times when 
the fertility reached 97%. 

The Breeding Pens are mated up two weeks before 
eggs are to be used for incubation, and early hatched 
cockerels are used to head these Breeding Pens. It 
has been found that the mating of cockerels with 
yearling hens produces a very decided predominance 
of pullets, and the youngsters are strong and vigorous 
from the start. 

The proportion of mating is one to twelve, and the 
records of The Corning Egg Farm show that by this 
method of mating the number of cockerels produced, 



A GREAT LAYING STRAIN 75 

through the years that the Farm has been in opera- 
tion, has been as low as one-quarter, and as high as 
one-third. 

The males to head the pens are selected with the 
same care that the hens are. They are all perfect 
birds, of large size, and conform as closely as possi- 
ble to the standard requirements, without interfering 
with the paramount aim of producing a Great Layer. 



CHAPTER IX 
What is the Best Time to Hatch? 

The question which is the title of this chapter is 
asked over and over again. You see it propounded 
to the editor of almost every poultry paper in the 
country. And it is a difficult one to answer, because 
the various needs of different people are so diversi- 
fied. April and May are doubtless the natural hatch- 
ing seasons for all varieties. Climatic conditions are 
then kinder, the food which is necessary for the pro- 
duction of many eggs, and eggs of the strong hatcha- 
ble kind, is supplied by Nature in great abundance, 
and the young chick coming into life in these months 
finds a great variety of natural food of the very best 
kind for growth awaiting it. In Spring eggs run 
strongly fertile, and in every way Nature seems to 
lend herself to successful hatching, and the starting of 
the young chick properly on its journey. 

The man, however, who is operating an egg farm, 
and has made contracts for the delivery of a con- 
tinuous supply of eggs to exacting customers, cannot 
well afford to wait until these months to hatch in, 
for it is necessary for him to have a large number of 
pullets reaching maturity and beginning to lay, 

76 



THE BEST TIME TO HATCH tj 

before his last year's pullets reach the moulting period 
and stop egg production. To accomplish this it is 
necessary to have in his brooder house, by not later 
than the first week of March, a goodly number of 
yellow babies. From that time on he must keep 
them coining, so as to have a sufficient number a few 
weeks apart to take the place of the yearling hens 
going into the moult. In this way he will succeed in 
keeping up a continuous flow of eggs. 

It is true there is a danger in these early hatched 
pullets. They may go into what is called the Winter 
moult, after laying well into the month of December, 
but they will not all moult, and before there is a 
marked shrinkage the later hatches will be laying 
strongly. 

The moult which occurs with early hatched birds 
does not last as long as the moult coming in the regu- 
lar season. The birds soon return to the nest, and 
the house rapidly jumps back to a very large output 
of eggs for the coming Spring months. Thus the 
great increase in numbers helps to offset the decrease 
in price, and to equalize the bank account. 

It must be remembered, however, that Leghorns 
hatched up to the 25th of June make good Winter 
layers provided they are properly cared for, and given 
the food and attention which produces a great growth, 
and under such conditions one will find no difficulty 
in getting them into laying eggs readily by the time 
they are five months of age. 



;8 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

An Interesting Experiment in Late Hatching 

In the season of 191 o The Corning Egg Farm made 
a very interesting experiment, in a large way, so far 
as late hatching goes. We incubated two large 
batches of eggs, the first being set so that the chicks 
hatched from the 18th to the 26th of July; the second 
batch completed incubation August 15th. The re- 
sulting pullets from these two hatches were some fifty 
odd over twelve hundred. We carried them on 
Range until December 1st, and then placed them in 
a Laying House by themselves. They had not begun 
to lay on Range so far as we were able to discover, 
although many of the pullets had the appearance of 
eggs. Almost from the start, after they were placed 
in the Colony Houses, we fed them, in addition to the 
regular Range ration, a good supply of Sprouted Oats 
each day. This was done for the reason that of 
course the succulent green food had passed away, and 
we consider it of vital importance that growing birds 
be given the opportunity to gather a large supply of 
succulent green food. The records show that within 
three days after the pullets were placed in the Laying 
House we began to gather from one to three eggs a 
day. Before December was over the house was pro- 
ducing 10%; January saw 35% output of eggs, and 
before February was very far advanced we were 
doing better than 60%. There was a time in March 
when the House was yielding a 75% output. 




o 



THE BEST TIME TO HATCH 79 

These birds laid strongly all Summer, and we were 
interested in noting when they would start to moult. 
We had seen the statement made a number of times 
that late hatched pullets were very late moulters. In 
our experience, however, this did not prove to be true, 
for this pen of birds moulted at just about the same 
time, and in the same proportion, as the earlier hatches 
did. 

We had frequently seen it stated that birds 
hatched in the very last week of August, or the first 
week in September, would produce eggs at the same 
time that the June hatched pullets would begin to 
produce them. Our experience with June hatches, 
and we have had four years of it, disproves this 
statement absolutely. We find that the June hatched 
pullet, properly cared for, comes in quite as rapidly 
as those hatched in April and May. 

We do not wish to go on record as advocates of 
July and August hatching, but we simply wish to show 
what could be accomplished if a Breeder met with 
some misfortune, and was compelled to hatch late 
or not at all. 



CHAPTER X 

Succulent Green Food — Satisfactory Egg Produc- 
tion Impossible Without It 

A goodly supply of green food is necessary to all 
birds, the growing chicken as well as the yearling hen, 
for it is a great aid to digestion, helping to properly 
assimilate all foods as they arc taken into the crop, 
and passed through the great grinding mill of a 
chicken. 

There is no possible hope of a full egg supply from 
any Laying House where a large quantity of green 
food is not k-d daily. It may he fed in many forms. 
Clover or Alfalfa (and we are now speaking first of 
the Winter supply of green food) may be procured in 
a dry state, and by properly scalding it with hot water 
it may be made to almost live again, so far as its 
freshness and delightful odor go. In many cases the 
preparation of Clover or Alfalfa spoils it. The 
water should be quite at the boiling point, and it 
should be poured over, preferably it should be put on 
with a sprinkling can. The method at The Corning 
Egg Farm is to place whichever we are using of the 
Clover family in pails, a given number for each Lay- 
ing House, and as they stand in rows the hot water 

80 



SUCCULENT GREEN FOOD 81 

is applied with a sprinkling can. The contents are 
not allowed to steep, but as soon as the second wetting 
of the long row of pails is reached they are placed on 
the delivery wagon and at once taken to their desti- 
nation. When the contents are emptied from the 
pails they will be steaming hot, too hot for the birds 
to take at first, and you will find them standing in a 
ring around the Clover, and from time to time testing 
the heat. As soon as it is cool enough they will 
devour it with great avidity. 

Where Alfalfa is fed some flocks give considerable 
difficulty at first as they do not seem to relish it, but 
after a short time they seem to acquire the taste, and 
become very fond of it. It contains a higher amount 
of protein than the ordinary Clover which can be 
bought in the market, but in purchasing Alfalfa prod- 
ucts one should be careful not to buy a large quantity 
of dirt, but get what is known as " short cut," and 
have it carefully sifted. 

By many people cabbages are considered a most ex- 
cellent green food for Winter use, but if they are 
chopped up and fed to the layers considerable caution 
should be used in the feeding. They are very apt 
to upset the digestive organs of the birds, and that 
means a very decided decrease in the number of eggs. 
This is equally true of Mangle beets and other roots 
which in many cases are used. 



82 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

Sprouted Oats Best 

At The Corning Egg Farm we are strong believers 
in Sprouted Oats as a green food, and we now main- 
tain a cement Cellar, with good drainage, which is 
used for nothing else. The method of sprouting oats 
is really very simple, and does not require the arduous 
labor which one would imagine from numerous arti- 
cles written on the subject. 

How They Are Grown on the Farm 

We have frames three by six feet in size, built of 
ordinary boards, but not matched material. The 
sides are about four inches high. These frames are 
laid on the floor of the Cellar, and each frame is filled 
with forty-eight quarts of oats spread evenly over the 
bottom. We have a large sprinkler attached to the 
hose, and the oats are thoroughly wet as they lie in 
the trays, and this wetting is repeated every morning. 
In a temperature from fifty to sixty degrees we find 
that the oats have started to sprout about the third 
day, and from this on the growth is very fast. Parts 
of the oats in the frame will swell two or three inches 
in places, above the surrounding mass of oats, and we 
make it a practice to place the sprinkler directly on 
top of this swelling, and it is found by so doing that 
the frame in a short time will present a very even 
growth. 

If the Sprouted Oats are fed when the green tops 



SUCCULENT GREEN FOOD 83 

are from one and a half to two inches in length the 
chemical quality of the oat is not lost, and we really 
get a double ration when it is fed. If allowed to go 
beyond this length, they are then just an ordinary 
green food. 

In many instances we have noticed writers advoca- 
ting soaking the oats overnight, and then, for the next 
few days, to periodically stir them. And in other 
cases writers advise, when they are placed in the 
frames to turn the oats over. This is a serious mis- 
take, for anyone can readily see that the tender shoots, 
which grow most rapidly after the third day, would 
be broken off, and where this occurs the oats will rot. 

Oats, of course, can be sprouted in sheds, or even 
out-of-doors, if they are covered up so that the sun 
will not dry them out too rapidly. 

A frame should be made in such a manner that the 
water sprayed over the oats will slowly drain away. 
There are a number of different contrivances now 
being placed on the market for sprouting oats, and we 
have no doubt that, on small plants, some of them 
would prove quite satisfactory. Where it is desired 
to sprout oats in a small way, in the Cellar of one's 
house, a rack can be built with run-ways for the 
trays to slide on, with a space of two inches between 
the trays. By thoroughly sprinkling the top tray 
the water will run down through from one tray to 
another, and, as the growth progresses, the more 
advanced ones can be moved up from the bottom of 



84 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

the rack, as they require less water than those in a 
less advanced stage. 

The oats sprout more quickly if grown and 
sprinkled in a fairly dark place, and it must be re- 
membered that too warm a temperature will rot the 
mass after the growth has reached its fourth or fifth 
day. 

Timothy and Clover Cut Green 

As one enters The Corning Egg Farm, on the left 
of the drive, there is about an acre of Timothy and 
Clover. This acre has been very heavily fertilized 
and brought up to a high state of cultivation. The 
Timothy and Clover grow so rapidly, and the growth 
comes in such abundance almost before the snow is 
off the ground, that cutting it as we do, so many rows 
each morning, it is impossible to cross the entire plot 
before that which was first cut has almost grown be- 
yond the succulent point. To make a change for the 
hens we cut this in the early Spring, and pass it 
through the Clover Cutter, reducing it to quarter inch 
lengths, but we find that after the first few days of 
feeding the hens show a decided preference for 
Sprouted Oats, and now we make it a rule to feed 
the Timothy and Clover one day and the Sprouted 
Oats the next. This works very well, and the " Bid- 
dies " seem to enjoy the different rations on alternate 
days. 




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SUCCULENT GREEN FOOD 85 

The Colony Range is so cared for and fertilized 
that the growing pullet, for the Spring and Summer 
months, finds an unlimited supply of succulent green 
food at her door. 



CHAPTER XI 

Anthracite Coal Ashes — A Substitute for Many 
More Expensive Necessities 

The feather of a bird is composed almost entirely 
of phosphorous, and phosphorous is a great aid to the 
bird in digesting food. In fact, there are manufac- 
tured " grits " offered on the market, which base their 
efficiency on the amount of phosphorous they carry. 

Anthracite, or hard, coal ashes, carry a considerable 
quantity of phosphorous, and this is the reason 
chickens in all stages of their existence are so fond 
of them. Our attention was first called to this fact 
by observing the large number of pullets on the 
Colony Range, where some loads of ashes had been 
used the previous season in mixing with the fertilizer 
for the growing of potatoes. It was noticed that 
these small heaps of ashes were very soon consumed, 
and when they were replenished the pullets were never 
absent from the piles. The experiment was then 
made of placing a small heap at the extreme end 
of the chick runs from the Brooder House, and to 
our surprise we found one was unable to see the ashes 
because of the moving mass of yellow which covered 
them. It was necessary to replenish these heaps al- 

86 



ANTHRACITE COAL ASHES 87 

most daily. As ashes are perfectly sanitary we de- 
cided to cover the entire chick run with them, which 
we did, and every few days, through the brooding 
season, a fresh coating is necessary, as the youngsters 
consume so much of the surface constantly. 

Better Than Charcoal 

Next, we sifted ashes and filled the hoppers in the 
Laying Houses with them. The layers ate them in 
the same way in which they consumed wheat. For 
an experiment we stopped feeding charcoal entirely, 
and found that the ashes supplied everything that the 
charcoal did, with none of the dangers, for there 
seems to be no doubt that where hens consume large 
quantities of charcoal they are very susceptible to 
colds. 

Large heaps of Anthracite ashes are now kept 
within a short distance of every Colony House on the 
Range, and the use of these ashes has very materially 
reduced the quantity of Grit and Shell consumed, 
thus representing a considerable economy. 

Until the use of Anthracite ashes came in on the 
Range we placed Grit in receptacles near each Colony 
House, and the amount consumed was really remarka- 
ble. As soon as the ashes were placed there the Grit 
was deserted, and there practically was no consump- 
tion of it at all, and after a few weeks we ceased to 
supply it and have not done so now for years. 

Since the use of the sifted ashes in the Laying 



88 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

Houses a soft shelled egg is almost a curiosity on the 
Farm. 

In the Brooder House runs, beside supplying the 
phosphorus to the youngsters for their digestion, and 
the making of their feathers, it does away with the 
fear of contamination of soil, of which so much is now 
written, and it presents a surface which dries almost 
before the rain storm is over, and there is no possibil- 
ity of the youngsters being let out into a muddy run. 



CHAPTER XII 

Eggs for Breeding Should be Laid by a Real 
Yearling Hen 

Having heard many stories told by Breeders who 
were sellers of eggs for hatching, and also the tales 
by purchasers, we were somewhat loath to embark 
in this branch of the Egg Trade. The Breeders told 
stories of letters which would " raise your hair " from 
people who had purchased from them and met with 
poor success, and of course, from their point of view, 
the only person at fault was the man who sold the 
eggs. 

For the season of 1910 our breeding pen had 
reached a size which allowed us, for the first time, 
to offer eggs to the public, and we decided to try it 
out. To everyone we stated that we would not guar- 
antee fertility, but, as they were getting eggs from 
exactly the same pens which were supplying our own 
incubators, we were able, at all times, to tell what the 
customer was receiving. But we went further, and 
agreed that anyone claiming a low fertility, if he 
would send us the eggs which he claimed to be clear, 
and prepay the expressage, we would, if his claim was 

89 



90 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK. 

substantiated, send him another lot of eggs and pay 
the expressage both ways. 

90,000 Orders for 40,000 Eggs 

During the season of 19 10 we sold something over 
40,000 eggs and returned money for about 50,000 be- 
yond our ability to supply. The result was that many 
people who were disappointed booked orders at very 
early dates in 19 10 for hatching eggs for the season 
of 1911. 

Our experience was quite the reverse from the 
stories we had been told. Of course, in doing a large 
business, it is not possible to satisfy everyone, and 
then, unfortunately, there are some people who are 
extremely fond of attempting to get something for 
nothing, and you receive statements regarding orders 
which have been filled, which when investigated, 
prove to be somewhat different from what you were 
at first led to believe. 

The fertility of our eggs was such that it was almost 
impossible for anyone to make a complaint, and the 
hatching season of 19 10, both at the Farm and for our 
customers, was a most successful one. 

For the season of 191 1 we were able to increase 
our breeding facilities considerably over 1910, but 
we were even more unable to meet the demands upon 
us for hatching eggs, than in the previous season. 
The results of this year were quite as satisfactory as 
for the previous, and for the season of 191 2 the Farm 



EGGS FOR BREEDING 91 

will be in a position to fill more orders than ever 
before, as we have been able to make a still greater 
increase on the breeding side. 

Orders for hatching eggs are booked by such a sys- 
tem that people receive them when we agree to deliver 
the goods, and the illustration herewith plainly shows 
the plan. 

$ SUNNY SLOPE FARM No. 



THE GREAT CORNING EGG FARM 

BREEDERS OF THE STRAIN OF S. C. WHITE LEGHORNS 

WHICH CANNOT BE SURPASSED 

BOUND BROOK, N. J. 191 

Received of 

Dollars 

FOR S. C. W. LEGHORN EGGS FOR HATCHING. THESE 

EGGS ARE TO BE SHIPPED BY EXPRESS ON OR ABOUT THE 
DAY OF 191 

THE CORNING EGG FARM 

BY 



CHAPTER XIII 

Policing the Farm — With Bloodhounds, Search- 
lights and Rifles 

In the Fall of each year, from almost every part 
of the Country, come reports of what seems to be or- 
ganized thieving in the poultry line. Both large and 
small farms are generally sufferers. For a number of 
years people in the vicinity of the The Corning Egg 
Farm have met with losses, and in the year 1910 
an organized gang was unearthed, which had a camp 
on the adjacent hills, and made nightly raids, then 
shipped the birds by crossing the Watchung Moun- 
tains and reaching railroad communication on the 
other side, sending their stolen feathered plunder into 
the New York Market. 

Shoot First — Investigate Afterwards 

The Corning Egg Farm takes a great many pre- 
cautions in regard to efficient policing, and has earned 
a reputation for straight shooting, not with a gun 
carrying bird shot, but with rifles. It is thoroughly 
understood for miles around that we shoot first and 
investigate afterwards. The farm carries some of 
the finest Blood Hounds in the Country, all trained 

92 



POLICING THE FARM 93 

man-trailers, and it is thoroughly understood that if 
the rifle fails to stop a thief, and it becomes desirable 
to see him, the hounds will take up the trail the next 
day, and no matter where he may have gone there will 
be no difficulty in reaching him. Should he take train 
the dogs will tell the fact, and then it will be only 
necessary to try each station until the one is reached 
where he left the train. Should he leave by means of 
a horse, when he either gets into the wagon, or mounts 
the horse, the hound will take the scent, and carry it 
until he again takes to the ground. 

Socrates, the Great Bloodhound 

The head of the kennel, " Socrates," No. 127320, 
(his registered name is "Ottawa's Major") is a 
direct descendant from Rosemary and Delhi, the two 
great dogs of Mr. Burgh, of England, who for years 
has been the leading breeder of man-trailing Blood 
Hounds. Altogether the Farm to-day is carrying 
seventeen dogs. Fifteen of them are pure and grade 
Blood Hounds; two are Fox Terriers. The Fox 
Terriers are kept for a breed of thieves other than 
the two-legged kind, and rats have no place on which 
to rest the soles of their feet. 

The dogs, every night, are distributed at different 
points of the Farm, and one of the great qualities of 
the Blood Hound is its marvelous nose, which works 
just as well in the dark as in the light, and as watch 
dogs, because of this peculiarity, they are most effi- 



94 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

cient, giving notice of anyone approaching the Farm 
long before he could possibly be detected by a dog 
of another breed. When they give tongue there is 
no doubt in the mind of anyone but that he is ap- 
proaching a very dangerous zone. 

On the Foreman's Apartments there is a Tower 
which connects with his room, the windows of which 
command a view of every part of the Farm. In this 
Tower there is a searchlight, and at any time of the 
night, if the dogs give warning of a possible dis- 
turber, any part of the Farm can be instantly flooded 
with light. Back of the search light is the high power 
rifle. 

Throughout the Range there is a trolley system 
which is used, the overhead wire being so divided 
that each dog has a run of one hundred feet, and the 
leash attached to the sliding pulley gives him twenty 
feet on either side of the wire. This makes a com- 
plete circuit of the Colony Range, so that it is im- 
possible for anyone to cross in among the Colony 
Houses without being reached by one of the dogs. 

We have been breeding some grade hounds, which 
make a rather more ferocious animal than the pure 
breed, so far as natural disposition goes. The nose 
quality, however, is all retained, thus enabling these 
grades to become perfect trailers. 

It is well on any tgg farm to establish a reputa- 
tion for being in a position to always place a marauder 




t/3 

V r 

z fc 

— z 

2. c/) 









POLICING THE FARM 95 

behind the bars, and nothing so insures protection as 
the knowledge that on the Farm there are carried 
dogs which are capable of trailing a trespasser wher- 
ever he may go. 



CHAPTER XIV 

The Necessity for Pure Water — An Egg is Chem- 
ically 809; Water 

Eighty per cent, of an egg is water. If a sanitary 
egg is to be produced it is most essential that pure 
water should be accessible to the hens at all times, 
and not only should the water be pure, but the drink- 
ing fountains must be of such a nature that they can 
readily be kept in a pure state, and that the cups, 
into which the water flows from the main fountain, 
cannot be fouled by the birds. 

Automatic Fountains Essential 

On The Corning Egg Farm the supply of water is 
placed before the birds in automatic fountains, which 
work on air pressure, and contain five gallons each. 
The water feeds down through a pipe into the cups, 
the feeding pipe shutting off by the turning of a 
small cock, thus permitting the removal of the cup, 
so that it can be thoroughly cleansed each day at the 
time of filling the fountain, by the use of a small 
brush, or swab. Once a week a quarter of a tea- 
spoonful of Potassium Permanganate is put into each 
fountain, just enough to give the water a slight 

96 




CORNING AUTOMATIC DRINKING FOUNTAIN 



NECESSITY FOR PURE WATER 97 

coloring. It is a mistake to have the color so deep 
that it verges on the purple. This purifies the foun- 
tain and acts as a preventive of colds. 

It is a very good practice also to occasionally put 
a few drops of Kerosene oil into the bottom of the 
cup and then allow the water to run in. The Kero- 
sene will run over the entire surface of the cup and 
then rise to the top of the water. As the birds dip 
their bills to drink a small amount of the Kerosene 
is taken up on the bill, and, when the head is thrown 
back to swallow it runs into the nostrils. 

The drinking fountains are occasionally thoroughly 
cleansed with a strong solution of Washing Soda. 
This, of course, is carefully washed out of the foun- 
tains before they are filled up and placed in the Laying 
Houses. 

Hot Water in Cold Weather 

In the Breeding and Laying Houses during the 
cold months, hot water is placed in the fountains. 
On The Corning Egg Farm a large boiler, with a hot 
water attachment, is maintained for this purpose, and 
water is taken to the Laying Houses at as close to 
boiling point as it is possible to get it there. 

Hens Drink More in Afternoon 

At first the watering was done early in the morning, 
but now the watering hour has been changed to the 
first hour of the afternoon. The reason for this is 



98 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

because, by sitting in the Laying Houses and watch- 
ing the birds, it was discovered that from one o'clock 
to roosting time more water is consumed than at any 
other hours of the day. At first it was thought that 
Biddy, on leaving her roost, immediately sought the 
drinking fountain, but we find the first act, generally 
speaking, is to endeavor to fill the crop with grain, 
and she vigorously starts to work in the litter. 

By placing the hot water in the fountains during 
the hour after noon, we find that with the closing of 
the house for the night, the water retains its tempera- 
ture to a remarkable degree, and it is not at all chilling 
to the birds in the morning of ordinary cold weather. 
If the night has been an extremely cold one we make 
it a practice of going through the Houses with boiling 
water, emptying out what may be in the cups, and 
refilling them from the hot water can, thus giving 
any bird which may desire a large quantity, warm 
water to drink at this time in the morning. 

The supply of water for all the stock on The Corn- 
ing Egg Farm comes from the deep well, already de- 
scribed in the chapter on " Building the Farm." 



CHAPTER XV 

Hard Coal Ashes, Oyster Shell, and Grit 

As stated in the chapter on " Anthracite Coal 
Ashes," ashes have entirely taken the place of char- 
coal on The Corning Egg Farm. They are fed in 
hoppers with the Grit and Oyster Shell. These hop- 
pers are divided into three compartments, and are 
automatic in feeding down the ingredients, in small 
quantities at a time, for Biddy's use. 

It is very essential to supply the hen with the 
proper grinding material for operation in her mill, 
for, from the crop, what she takes into her system in 
the way of grain, etc., is passed into the gizzard, where 
she places a certain amount of hard, sharp stones, 
to use as mill stones, and this great muscular organ 
then puts the food into the proper condition for her 
to assimilate it. 

The Grit placed in the hoppers is hard and sharp. 
Ordinary pebbles are of no use to Biddy in preparing 
her food for digestion. There are a great many dif- 
ferent grits on the market sold through Poultry Sup- 
ply Houses, and by the manufacturers themselves. 
Where it is possible to procure Grit having the essen- 
tials as already described, and carrying a good per- 

99 



ioo THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

centage of lime, it adds very materially to the desira- 
bility of the Grit. 

Oyster Shell occupies the third compartment of the 
hoppers, this supplying the hen with the lime neces- 
sary for her own system and for the shell of the 
egg. It should be seen to that the Oyster Shell is 
free from dust, and rather coarse as to its size. This 
represents an economy because there is so little waste 
by the fowls when the Shell is fed to them in this 
condition. The lack of lime in the system of the hen 
is one of the reasons for soft shelled eggs, and the 
lack of lime in the ingredients fed to a young chick 
means soft bones, which shows most decidedly in leg 
weaknesses. 

Where the hen is supplied with the full quantity of 
the ingredients which give her lime, she turns out 
eggs which you might term " well shelled " and this 
adds materially to the appearance of the Qgg, and, con- 
sequently, helps to give it a better grading. 



CHAPTER XVI 

Beef Scrap and Green Bone Substitutes for Na- 
ture's Animal Food 

Undoubtedly the ideal animal food for the hen, 
if it were possible to procure it in sufficient quantities 
the year round, would be angle worms, grasshoppers, 
and other members of the insect family, which the 
early Spring supplies in such liberal quantities. It 
must be remembered that in these different worms 
and insects there is a large amount of phosphorous, 
which adds very greatly to the ability of the hen to 
successfully digest the large quantity of food which 
is necessary, if she is to produce a large quantity of 

Green Cut Bone Nearest Nature 

The thing, perhaps, nearest in an artificial way to 
Nature's animal food, is green cut bone, and it is 
certainly relished by the hens, and a great assistance 
in producing Winter eggs. The exercise of great care, 
however, in the selection of bone is very necessary, 
for, if salt bone, or tainted bone, is cut up and fed 
to the fowls, it will prove most detrimental, and in 
many instances will mean the loss of the hen. 

IOI 



102 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

For those who do not find it possible to set up the 
necessary bone-cutting machinery there are numerous 
brands of " Beef Scrap " on the market. This is 
made from green bone and meat which is 
then cooked, ground and pressed, so as to preserve 
it fresh and sweet. This also is a most successful 
way to supply the hens with the necessary amount 
of animal food. It is readily mixed into the 
mash, just as the green cut bone is, and, where the 
proper mechanical mixer is used, it is possible 
to thoroughly coat the entire meal mixture with the 
oily condition coming from the beef scrap, and 
until one has seen beef scrap mixed into the mash 
by such a mixer he has no idea how successful the 
operation is in preparing a high grade mash. The 
beef scrap and also the fresh cut bone carry a high 
percentage of phosphorus, and in fact have about 
all the ingredients found in animal food secured by 
the hen while running on Range. 

There are now appearing numerous advertisements 
of a prepared fish, to take the place of other animal 
foods, but The Corning Egg Farm is unable to give 
any opinion as to the efficiency of this preparation. 
It has been the rule at the Farm, when we have 
thoroughly tested and found satisfactory any article 
of food, not to experiment with the various substi- 
tutes which at all times are so widely advertised. 



CHAPTER XVII 

A Time for Everything — Everything on Time 

In any business, or occupation, that one attempts to 
carry on successfully there must be system. Nature 
teaches system, and the hen, as a part of Nature, is 
a very regular performer. She does everything on 
time, and at a given time, and if her routine is broken 
in upon she is a very much upset individual. The 
owner who rudely disturbs her routine suffers in the 
loss of eggs. 

The schedule of work among the fowls on The 
Corning Egg Farm is without variation each day. 
In Summer the houses are always open and need no 
attention in the morning, but in Winter the drops are 
raised in ordinarily cold weather, as soon as it is light 
enough to enable the hens to work in the litter for 
grain. On very cold mornings the raising of the 
drops is deferred until the Sun is up, and when this is 
done the drinking cups in the fountains are filled with 
hot water. 

Fixed Feeding Hours 

As close to eight o'clock as possible green food is 
fed to all the hens, and, if the ground is in a reasona- 

103 



to 4 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

bly dry condition, the green food for the cockerels is 
scattered outside their pen, and the entire tlock is 
driven out of the House, where they are soon busy 
consuming the green food and whatever grain may 
have been left on the ground from their outdoor feed- 
ing of the previous day. 

For a number of years it was the method at The 
Corning Egg Farm, between the hours of nine and 
ten o'clock, to make a gathering of eggs. This has 
now been abandoned for the reason that so many birds 
were disturbed on the nests during such an early visit 
to the House for gathering, and the first gathering now 
on the Farm is made at eleven-thirty. 

In the study of feeding, extending over a term of 
years, it has been found that a considerable economy 
in time can be made, with exactly as advantageous 
results from the layers, by the following routine. 
Fresh water is placed in all the laying and breeding- 
pens at one o'clock, p. m., and it is boiling water 
during the Winter months. Directly following the 
watering the mash is placed in the troughs, and the 
grain ration is scattered through the litter, both in 
Summer and Winter. It has been found that the 
hens work just as hard, and continue to do so, as 
they did when the mash and grain fed were given at 
hours which practically followed the Sun, that is, 
earlier in Winter, and later in Summer. In past 
years, the oats were fed to the flocks as a separate 
ration, at eleven-thirty o'clock. This we have dis- 



A TIME FOR EVERYTHING 105 

continued. The grain ration is made up of cracked 
corn, wheat and oats, in varying proportions according 
to the season of the year. 

Four Collections of Eggs Daily 

At three o'clock another collection of eggs is made, 
and at five o'clock eggs are again collected, and at 
this last collection all the corners of the litter under the 
dropping boards are carefully searched for eggs laid 
by the wayward Biddy, who prefers her own scooped 
out corner to a good nest. 

The Houses are closed for the night, according to 
the condition of the weather, and at this time still 
another collection of eggs is made. At seven-thirty 
the Houses are again visited, and all birds not roost- 
ing as they should be are removed from the nest 
boxes or windows and placed upon the perches. 

Mash Fed in Afternoon 

During the Summer months, when the birds are on 
Range, they are fed their mash and grain ration be- 
tween the hours of two and three in the afternoon. 

Throughout the year nothing whatever is allowed 
to interfere with the Schedule, and, if one would suc- 
ceed with poultry a rigid adherence to regularity is 
most necessary. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

Incubation on the Corning Egg Farm 

We find, in studying Artificial Incubation, it has 
been in vogue, one might almost say, for centuries. 
The Chinese practiced artificial incubation by the use 
of hot sand and ovens, for it must be remembered 
that the Pekin Duck, which comes from China, is a 
non-setter. Therefore, ages ago, the Chinese were 
driven to the necessity of artificial incubation in order 
to maintain their large flocks of ducks. In studying 
the art one cannot help wondering that the progress 
in its development has been so slow, and the advance, 
year by year, has been almost nothing. 

Hen Reigns Supreme 

The Owners of The Corning Egg Farm were some- 
what taken aback one day by the statement of a young 
man that he must evolve a theory of incubation for 
himself, and carefully carry it out. In incubation 
one does not want theory, but the knowledge which 
comes from long practice and the most scientific study 
of the art. After all these years, the hen, as a 
hatcher, reigns supreme. There is nothing which ap- 

106 



INCUBATION ON CORNING FARM 107 

proximates her ability to turn out strong, vigorous 
chicks, and yet it is unfortunately necessary to aban- 
don the hen when large numbers of chicks are to be 
produced. So Man has struggled in his vain efforts to 
reach something which will, at least in a measure, be- 
come a competitor of the hen. 

Livable Chicks — Not Numbers 

In 191 1, the readers of advertisements in the Poul- 
try Magazines were confronted with the statement 
that a certain incubator was the only competitor the 
hen had. But, it is sad to state, there must have been 
some mistake, for this incubator could not live up to 
the claim in the advertisement, nor, so far as it is 
known, is there any incubator which approximates 
that claim. Some marvelous hatches are written of, 
but the question is not one of marvelous hatches, so 
far as it means the number of chicks which manage 
to come through the strenuous act of exclusion, but 
the real question of incubation is as to the number 
of strong chicks, capable of living and growing into an 
animal which will become a money maker for the man 
who hatched and raised it. 

Many people stand in great awe of an incubator, no 
matter what its make, and have the feeling that to 
hatch a fair number of chicks in a machine is almost 
a miracle. The fact is, however, if the purchaser of 
any incubator will realize that the manufacturer knows 
more about the proper way to run it than Tom Jones, 



108 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

or Bill Smith, who may be neighbors, and will fol- 
low the instructions as given by the manufacturer, 
with good fertile eggs, it will be almost a miracle if 
he does not get at least a fair hatch. 

There are so many different makes of machines it 
is quite impossible to write a chapter on incubation 
which will cover the needs of all phases of it. The 
above advice, however, if followed, will certainly be 
more apt to bring about successful hatches than any- 
thing else that can be done. 

On The Corning Egg Farm the problem of incu- 
bation has been most carefully studied from the in- 
ception of the Farm. 

Uniform Temperature Most Important 

A thermostat and regulator which will absolutely 
insure an even temperature in the egg chamber, and 
a thermostat so sensitive, with an adjustment of the 
regulator to such a nicety, that it will insure the main- 
taining of an equal temperature in the egg chamber 
even if there is a variation of atmosphere in the Cellar 
of from 10 to 20 degrees, is perhaps, the first great 
essential in incubation. 

Ventilation and Moisture Next 

Ventilation and the retention of moisture undoubt- 
edly come next. The growing embryo must be fed 
a large quantity of oxygen, and there must be a suffi- 
cient amount of moisture to prevent a too rapid dry- 



INCUBATION ON CORNING FARM 109 

ing out of the egg, under the temperature which, if a 
chick is to result, must be maintained. So far as 
moisture goes, it is not a question of moisture at the 
time of hatching. If the proper amount of moisture 
has been always present during the period of incuba- 
tion there will be no difficulty at the time of exclusion. 

Where a large amount of incubation is going on, 
and the ordinary style of lamp heated machine is be- 
ing used, oxygen is of necessity constantly absorbed 
from the atmosphere, by the fire. While it is quite 
possible, nay, even probable, that any of the mam- 
moth machines of the day are far from what might 
be desired, still, they do solve the difficulty of a great 
number of individual fires sucking the vital oxygen. 

Of the mammoth machines now on the market there 
are two which produce better chicks than any of the 
others, so far as we can see. There are features in 
the one which we finally decided upon, which, from 
our point of view, made it more desirable than the 
other. We feel, however, that in the construction 
of these machines there is much to be desired, and 
we suggest to any would-be purchasers to make most 
thorough and complete stipulations with any company 
from whom they purchase, as to the workmanship and 
finish of the machine, and also the proper fitting of 
one part to another, especially the proper working 
of doors and egg trays through all the different periods 
of incubation. All trays should be absolutely inter- 
changeable, and there should be a sufficient amount of 



no THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

play in the runs, so that, with the swelling of the 
wood from the moisture, there would never be a pos- 
sibility of their binding. While the doors should 
shut air-tight, their dove-tailed joints should so fit as 
to allow their coming away without a particle of stick, 
or jar, to the machine. 

Hot Water Machines Best 

When it had been fully determined by The Corning 
Egg Farm to put in Hot Water Heated Incubators, 
the capacity desired being about sixteen thousand eggs, 
it was concluded to divide this capacity between two 
machines. 

It was also decided to build an entirely new Incu- 
bator Cellar, and the dimensions were 146 feet long 
by 2.2 feet wide, 7 feet from the concrete floor to the 
bottom of the floor joists, these latter being 12 inches 
in width, making a full height to the floor of the 
Brooder House overhead, 8 feet. The floor joists on 
the under side of the floor of the Brooder House are 
planed and painted white. The Cellar is constructed 
of concrete blocks, made rock faced, and showing in 
the interior of the Cellar. The two incubators are 
also painted white enamel. 

So as to eliminate any question of the consumption 
of oxygen by fire in the Cellar the heaters are placed 
with a concrete block partition between them and the 
incubators, the hot water pipes passing through this 
concrete wall, and connecting with the incubators. 



INCUBATION ON CORNING FARM in 

In this separate part of the Cellar, where the heaters 
for the incubators stand, are also the two heaters for 
the Brooding System, upstairs, and also the large 
auxiliary heater which cares for the hot-water system 
which allows the Brooder House to be carried at an 
even temperature, day and night. 

In the heater part of the Cellar there are three 
large windows, and an entrance is made into this 
Cellar through a vestibule which is ten by nine feet. 
The doors leading into this are large, double, glass 
doors, and from the landing just inside there is a 
staircase leading to the Brooder House, above. En- 
trance is made into the Heater Cellar through another 
pair of glass doors, five feet wide. The Incubator 
Cellar itself is reached directly in the center by a four 
foot door, also of glass. The two side alleys be- 
tween the incubators and the outer walls, are also 
reached from the Heater Cellar by narrow, glass doors. 

Corning Incubator Cellar Unequaled 

It is believed this Cellar, with its plan of equipment, 
is unequaled, anywhere, as to the convenience of its 
general arrangement. Ample light and ventilation 
are supplied in the Incubation Cellar proper, by twelve 
windows on the north and east sides, the south wall 
being blank, as the chick runs from the Brooder 
House go out on that side. 

It is impossible, owing to the necessity of the nar- 
row alleys between the incubators and the walls, to use 



ii2 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

the V-shaped window drops, which have been so suc- 
cessful on the Farm for the prevention of draughts. 
The windows work on sash-weights, both top and bot- 
tom. A Spring Roller Shade device, covered with 
sheer muslin, with a screw eye on the window sill, is 
so placed that the cord may be passed through it, hold- 
ing the shade rigid. Thus, when the prevailing wind 
creates a draught, the window may be opened to any 
desired width, and the draught prevented by the shade. 
In operating the incubators they are run empty for 
a sufficient number of hours to adjust the regulator, 
and to know they will maintain a temperature of 103 
degrees exactly. 

Eggs Turned from Third to Eighteenth Day 

After eggs are placed in the incubators the process 
of turning does not begin until the third day, after 
which they are turned regularly twice a day until the 
completion of the 18th day, when they are left undis- 
turbed. 

103 Degrees Maintained 

The temperature at which the incubators are car- 
ried for the first week is a matter of wide difference 
of opinion. In many cases 102 degrees is the max- 
imum temperature for the first seven days, after which 
103 is maintained as closely as possible during the 
remaining period of incubation. In operating the in- 
cubators on The Corning Egg Farm it has been found 



INCUBATION ON CORNING FARM 113 

(and this is particularly true of early hatches) that, 
if the eggs are not brought up to 103 degrees for the 
first week, a retarded hatch is the result. A hatch 
which drags over its time usually means a lot of weak- 
lings. It is our practice, therefore, to bring the eggs 
up to 103 degrees as soon as possible after setting 
them, and to continue this temperature as nearly as 
possible. 

Cool But Never Cold 

Cooling the eggs is of course practiced on The Corn- 
ing Egg Farm. For the first week, five or six min- 
utes will usually be found a sufficient time, but as the 
embryo grows the length of time should be increased. 

It is quite impossible to give any exact length of 
period for cooling, and it must be determined by the 
feel of the egg to the hand. They should never reach 
a point where they can be termed perfectly cold, but 
should feel slightly warm as the palm of the hand is 
laid upon them. In cooling, the egg tray should be 
placed on top of an incubator or table so that the bot- 
tom is completely protected, otherwise the eggs will 
cool too rapidly. In other words they should lie as 
they do in the nest of the hen. According to atmos- 
pheric conditions, cooling, during the latter part of in- 
cubation, will sometimes reach from forty to sixty 
minutes. It is a practice with us to give the eggs a 
very long period of cooling on the 18th day, before 
they are placed in the incubator for the last time. 



ii 4 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

After closing the incubator on the 18th day it is not 
opened again until the chicks are removed on the 226. 
day. 

To open the door and reach in to assist some chick 
out of difficulty means allowing the moisture to es- 
cape, and, while the one individual which was seen to 
be in trouble might be rescued, by the lack of moisture 
in the egg chamber, many others would be held fast 
in the shell. 

Cover Glass Doors 

When the chicks begin to hatch we make it a prac- 
tice to throw a cloth over the glass door, so as to pre- 
vent the youngsters crowding toward the light, and 
piling up on top of each other, either in the egg trays 
or in the nurseries below. 

All Good Chicks Hatch in 20 Days 

Many people have an erroneous idea in regard to 
the time required for hatching. If the temperature 
has been carried at a correct point during the entire 
period the eggs will begin to pip on the afternoon of 
the 19th day, and the morning of the 20th day should 
find the youngsters coming out of the shells like 
Pop Corn over a hot fire if the eggs have been of 
proper strength, but on the morning of the 21st day 
the hatch should be completed. Generally speaking, 
chicks which hatch later than the 21st day are weak, 
and while they may come along for a time, when 



INCUBATION ON CORNING FARM 115 

placed in the Brooder House they generally snuff out, 
and add to the list of mortalities. 

Set Incubators Toward Evening 

It is our belief that there is a best time in the twenty- 
four hours in which to set an incubator. As a rule, it 
requires about eight hours after the eggs have been 
placed in the machine for it to come up to tempera- 
ture. Therefore, if the eggs go into the chamber late 
in the afternoon, and anything goes wrong with the 
regulator, the eggs cannot have been in a detrimental 
temperature for any great length of time before the 
operator is making his first morning round. We ob- 
serve the temperature in the egg chamber three times 
a day as a rule, the first thing in the morning before 
the eggs are turned; at noon, or a sufficient number of 
hours after turning and cooling the eggs, allowing a 
sufficient time to elapse for coming up to temperature ; 
and again late in the afternoon, before the final turn- 
ing for the day. At these hours of observation any 
slight alteration of regulator, to meet changes noted 
in the temperature, is, of course made. 

The Hot Water, Coal-Heated, Incubator is a great 
step in advance, and these machines are now built in 
sizes from twelve hundred eggs up. 

With the old style lamp machine, people who were 
running a small plant did not need an Incubator Cel- 
lar, but the Insurance Companies would not allow the 
placing of an incubator in the cellar of a house with- 



n6 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

out a special permit, and in many cases would not issue 
such a permit at all. The hot water machine will, of 
course, go into any cellar without vitiating the insur- 
ance, and, what is more, the machine itself is insurable, 
just as is any hot water plant in a house. 

Tested Only on Eighteenth Day 

Until this season, on The Corning Egg Farm, we 
had made it a rule to test the eggs on the 14th day. 
Many operators believe in testing the eggs from the 
5th to the 7th day, again on the 14th, with the final 
test on the 18th day. In operating one of the old 
style machines, with the large trays, it was expedient 
to remove the clear eggs and those with dead germs 
to facilitate the turning of the eggs in the trays, but 
all this arduous labor is done away with in the hot 
water machine. The trays hold seventy-five eggs, 
and are so constructed that one tray fits on top of an- 
other, and then the trays are simply reversed and 
the turning is accomplished. This makes it necessary 
to have a full tray to prevent the eggs rolling and 
breaking when they are turned in the manner de- 
scribed. Testing the eggs is, therefore, deferred un- 
til the 1 8th day. 

When one sees the tremendous saving of time 
which the coal-heated, hot water machine accomplishes 
for the operator, it produces a feeling bordering on 
mirth in the man who has labored with the old style 
machine and big tray, when thousands of eggs were 



INCUBATION ON CORNING FARM 117 

turned by hand twice a day. Ten thousand eggs in 
one of the modern machines are handled with less ef- 
fort and in less time than three thousand could possi- 
bly be cared for in one of the other styles of incu- 
bator. 

Moisture 

On The Corning Egg Farm moisture is provided 
in the Cellar by thoroughly wetting the floor with a 
hose twice a day, the floor sloping gently to a drain 
in one corner. Large earthen-ware vessels, of about 
three inches in depth and eighteen inches in diameter, 
are stood at different points throughout the Cellar, 
and are constantly kept filled with fresh water. This 
is done, not so much for the purpose of increasing 
the humidity of the air, as it is to take up the impuri- 
ties. As an illustration, if you stand vessels filled 
with water in a freshly painted room, the odor of 
paint is almost entirely absorbed by the water. 

As even a temperature as possible is carried in the 
Cellar, and at all times there is a constant flow of 
fresh air, but it is so controlled that it does not pro- 
duce a draught. It should be remembered that while 
a moist cellar is desirable, unless it is well ventilated, 
it is utterly unfit for the purpose of incubation. 

Chicks Handled Only Once 

The chicks, at the end of the 226. day, are counted 
out of the incubator into large baskets lined with Can- 



n8 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

ton Flannel, and in these they are carried upstairs to 
the Brooder House. 

The last act of the chicken, before pipping the shell, 
is to absorb into its system the yolk of the egg, which 
supplies it with a sufficient amount of nourishment to 
last at least forty-eight hours. This supply of nour- 
ishment is what really makes possible the tremendous 
business carried on in " baby chicks." But, as The 
Corning Egg Farm views it, the Society for Preven- 
tion of Cruelty to Animals should step in and stop 
this business. After exclusion is accomplished the 
chick is thoroughly exhausted, and for a number of 
hours, if left to its own devices, it lies in a deep sleep. 

Baby Chick Business Cruel 

Consider then the torture that this small animal is 
put through when it is taken out of the warm egg 
chamber, or nursery, as soon as it is dry enough, 
packed like a sardine in a box, and then hustled to an 
express office, placed on a train, and, by the swaying 
of the train, kept in constant motion. 

The sellers of day old chicks in many cases guar- 
antee the arrival of the small " puff ball " alive. Un- 
less the distance is extreme this is not such a difficult 
feat. They are alive on arrival, and perhaps con- 
tinue to live in apparently fair strength for some days, 
but somewhere between the 7th and 10th days the 
mortality usually runs into such numbers that the pur- 
chaser finds the remaining number of youngsters 



INCUBATION ON CORNING FARM 119 

has cost him about a dollar apiece. As the season ad- 
vances many more of them drop off, one by one, from 
causes which, to the unsophisticated, are unknown. 

A short time ago a gentleman who has been en- 
gaged in the Baby Chick business for a number of 
years was making a call at The Corning Egg Farm, 
and expressed his regret at having placed an order 
with a breeder of White Rocks for eggs at too late a 
date to insure their delivery before the first day of 
May. The breeder, however, had offered him some 
day old chicks. Our amusement was considerable 
when he remarked that he would not accept a day old 
chick as a gift if he was expected to pay the ex- 
pressage. 

The man who expects to procure strong, healthy 
youngsters would much better place his money in eggs 
for hatching, from reliable breeders, than to make 
himself a party to the suffering of these helpless mites. 

If the humane side of the argument does not appeal 
to him, certainly the money expended will. 

Correct records, on cards designed by us for the 
purpose, are kept on The Corning Egg Farm, show- 
ing the results from the incubators. These are filed, 
giving the Farm a record which, as the years go by, 
becomes invaluable, when planning for a year's work 
in incubation. 



i2o THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 



INCUBATOR NO. 


Set 


P.M. 


191 


Eggs 
Clear 
Dead 

Hatchable 


Chicks 


Turn 


P 


M. 


14th day 


1 8th day 


2 1 st day 



HOVER 


NO. 






191 


Chicks 


on 






191 


Moved to 
Colony 


House 


No. 







CHAPTER XIX 

Rearing Chicks in Brooder House — The Follow- 
ing Two Years Results Depend Upon Success 
in Brooding 

The Brooder House is built over the Sprouted Oats 
Cellar and the Incubator Cellar. Its total length is 
264 feet. 118 feet of this is 16 feet wide, and the 
balance is 22 feet wide. 

Incubation might be termed a mechanical opera- 
tion, and, as outlined in the previous chapter, a very 
fair hatch is usually obtained. But after all is said 
and done artificial rearing of young chicks is the most 
difficult problem which a poultryman has to solve. 

Chicks running with a hen will stand climatic con- 
ditions, and in fact thrive under conditions, which, if 
they were being handled in a Brooder House, would 
mean a tremendous, mortality. The hen will feed her 
brood on substances which would mean the annihila- 
tion of ones' entire flock of youngsters, should one 
attempt it, and, perhaps, the most curious feature of 
the feeding part is the fact that one may give the 
brood, running with the hen, food Nature never in- 
tended a small chick to eat, and many of the brood 

121 



122 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

will thrive on it, and the mortality will, in most cases, 
be confined to the weak ones. 

Corn Not Proper Chick Food 

In past decades, wet corn meal seemed to be about 
the standard ration which the chicks were fed on by 
the farmer's wife, and in fact this practice has not 
yet entirely gone out. Naturally, it brought about a 
large mortality which everyone deplored but could not 
understand. Corn in any form was never intended for 
a chick to eat, but when you place it before them in 
the form of meal, and this made into a sloppy mass, 
the wonder is, not at the largeness of the mortality, 
but rather that any of them live at all. 

But the advance in Poultry Culture has brought 
about feeding of whole grains, to a large extent. For 
years the proper feeding of chicks, even on farms 
with modern brooding equipment, has been a stum- 
bling block, causing serious loss, and, in many in- 
stances, failure, to those attempting to raise chickens 
either in large or small numbers. 

Follow Nature's Teaching 

In Poultry Culture, in order to succeed it is essen- 
tial to study Nature, to find out how the hen in a 
wild state cares for her brood, and then bring the ar- 
tificial conditions as near to Nature as possible. In 
almost every chick food put on the market the main 
ingredient, namely corn, was never intended for a 



REARING CHICKS IN BROODER HOUSE 123 

young chick to eat. Consider for a moment, and you 
will realize that the hen in a wild state could not possi- 
bly feed corn to her young. For the sake of argu- 
ment, however, suppose that corn did ripen at a time 
when it would be possible for the hen to procure it 
for her brood, the size of the kernel is so great that 
the small chick could not possibly swallow it. Thus 
Nature plainly points out that corn, for young chicks, 
is not the proper food. 

A Balanced Food 

On The Corning Egg Farm the question of chick 
food that could properly be called " chick food " has 
been a study for years, the problem being to procure 
a balanced ration containing, as closely as possible, 
the ingredients intended by Nature for a young chick 
to eat and thrive on. Many experiments were made 
with different mixtures, both with chicks running with 
natural mothers and with those being reared in the 
Brooder House, and it was found that in all cases 
where corn was fed in the mixture the results were 
bad. The youngsters running with the hen did not 
show the large mortality which those did in the 
Brooder House, but even the broods running with the 
hen did not do nearly so well where the corn was 
fed, as did those not having this ingredient in their 
food. 

The great mortality in young chicks is produced 
by the upsetting of their digestive organs. Corn is 



124 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

very heating, and as soon as the chick's blood is 
over-heated its digestive organs fail to work properly, 
and what is now known as " White Diarrhoea " almost 
invariably develops. It is claimed by some authori- 
ties that this difficulty comes from a germ which is in 
the tgg before incubation. This may be the case, 
but it is certainly true that wrong feeding will bring 
this germ into active life, and snuff out the existence 
of the chick. 

Another phase, which has been a special study on 
The Corning Egg Farm in the brooding of chicks, is 
an abundant supply of fresh air, not only in the room 
itself, but also to have the oxygen fed to the chicks 
properly when they are under the hovers. The use 
of gas for heating the hovers was found a decided 
improvement over the lamp, so far as the freshness 
of the air went, but, for procuring the purest hot air, 
to flow up into the hovers, we are now installing a 
system of hot water pipes. 

In a dwelling house, properly constructed, the en- 
tire heating apparatus is a hot air furnace, with a cold 
air box connected with outdoors constantly bringing in 
a fresh supply of pure air to be heated. If it were pos- 
sible this would be the ideal way of supplying the 
heat to the hover, but of course in a long Brooder 
House it is impossible to do this. The nearest ap- 
proach to this system of heating is a trunk line of hot 
water pipes, extending beneath the hover floor, with 
the pipes enclosed in a long box, standing some two 



REARING CHICKS IN BROODER HOUSE 125 

inches from the floor, and with orifices of proper size 
to allow the fresh air to circulate around the pipes, 
and then, through the radiating devices, to flow out 
underneath the hover, and thus to be diffused over the 
backs of the chicks. On The Corning Egg Farm this 
box is constructed of galvanized iron, and covered on 
the top and sides with asbestos board, with an air 
space between the asbestos board and the hover floor. 
Through this floor comes a thimble which connects 
with the radiator above. The top of this radiator is 
a spiral screw, which works like a piano stool re- 
versed, and with a tripod device which carries the 
thread but allows the hover itself to be removed with- 
out changing its position on the screw. As the chicks 
grow the hover can be slowly raised away from them, 
until it is finally removed entirely, and the chicks learn 
to do without it for a considerable time before they 
are moved to the Colony Range. The thimble is 
most thoroughly insulated with asbestos, so that there 
is no possibility of the much dreaded heat on the 
hover floor, which, when it does exist, tends to dry up 
the chicks' legs. 

From the hover floor there is an inclined runway 
down to the main floor of the Brooder House, which 
is covered with a fine litter, preferably short cut wheat 
straw, to a depth of about two inches. 

The inclined runway is hinged to the hover floor 
and works with a cord passing through a pulley on 
the ceiling, enabling the operator to raise it and retain 



126 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

the chicks directly around the hover. The trough 
surrounding the trunk line of hot water pipes is closed 
by a partition corresponding to the width of the hover 
run, which prevents the heat from flowing by the 
radiator in each section, and in this way equalizing the 
heat in every hover. 

Never Build a Double House 

The Corning Egg Farm is much opposed to what is 
known as the Double Brooder House, which is ad- 
vocated by many builders of Brooder House equip- 
ments, and, in which, in the majority of cases, the use 
of concrete floors is also practiced. The advantages 
in the supposed economy of this construction are more 
than off-set by the disadvantages. The proper place 
for the windows of the Brooder House is on the south 
front, and likewise the south side of the building is the 
proper place for the chick runs. The roof should be a 
shed roof sloping to the north, thus carrying all the 
water to the back and allowing none of it to drip down 
into the runs. The north side of the Brooder House 
should be absolutely tight, for, from this quarter, 
comes the great majority of cold storms, and the tight 
wall means an economy in fuel. And every item of 
expense must be carefully watched on a poultry farm. 

In these different respects let us look at the double 
house. First, it must run north and south ; second, 
it must have windows on the east and west, and the 
chick runs must go the same way ; third, it must be 



REARING CHICKS IN BROODER HOUSE 127 

built with a peaked roof, the drippings from storms 
thus falling directly into the yards. 

Must Drain Chick Runs 

In the Corning plan of Brooder House the yards are 
sloped toward the south, and, as there is no possibility 
of dripping from the roof, in a few moments after a 
hard storm the slope and the sun combined put the 
yards at once into a usable condition, so that the 
youngsters can be let out. All day long in this style 
Brooder House the yellow babies enjoy the sunshine. 
In the double constructed Brooder House the yards 
are bathed on the east side with sunshine for a short 
time, and the west side receives the Sun for a few 
hours before sunset. 

Concrete Floors Mean Dampness 

An added menace in this double style of construc- 
tion is the concrete floor generally used. It is almost 
impossible, with the greatest care and forethought, to 
produce a piece of concrete which does not constantly 
take up and give off* moisture, and one thing to be 
absolutely avoided in poultry houses, little or big, is 
dampness. 

The dollars saved in the construction of double 
houses are usually dollars which would have been 
made ten times over by the expenditure necessary to 
build a proper house. 

The chick yards on The Corning Egg Farm are 



128 THE CORNING EGG EARM BOOK 

sloping, and are twenty feet long, and correspond in 
width with the hover runs inside the house, which 
vary from three to four feet in width. The diameter 
of the hover varies with the size of the run, from 26 
to 30 inches. The sloping runs of the Brooder yards 
are covered with Anthracite Coal ashes, which have 
been found to entirely eliminate the much talked of 
danger of contamination of soil, the surface being con- 
stantly renewed as the ashes are consumed by the 
chicks. 

Each hover is numbered, and directly back, on the 
north wall of the Brooder House, is a corresponding 
number, and a nail, on which is hung the record card. 
When the chicks are carried up in baskets from the 
Incubator Cellar, they are carefully examined, all 
weaklings being excluded, and counted into the hover 
compartments. Careful selection and the " survival 
of the fittest " begin at this point with the stock on 
The Corning Egg Farm. 

Before speaking of the number of chicks carried in 
the hover compartments, it must be understood that 
running along the north wall of the Brooder House 
is a coil of hot water pipes, capable of maintaining 
a temperature of 85 degrees, three feet from the floor, 
and in zero weather. 

Corning Heated Brooder House 

The Corning Egg Farm believes absolutely in 
Brooder Houses heated beyond what is supplied by 




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REARING CHICKS IN BROODER HOUSE 129 

the hovers, and this is the reason it is possible to 
carry such a large number of youngsters in each hover 
compartment. In large hatches, when we have been 
crowded for room, two hundred chicks have frequently 
been carried in one compartment of four feet in width. 

Corning Feeds Dry Food Only 

When the chicks are first placed in the hover com- 
partment the inclined plane is drawn up and they find 
two drinking cups ready — the style that feeds itself 
into a small cup, into which it is not possible for the 
youngsters to get. They also find waiting for them 
their first meal of Corning Chick Food. For the first 
twenty-four hours the inclined plane remains up, 
and the hovers are visited every two hours. If the 
amount of Chick Food has been well cleaned up, an- 
other feeding is evenly distributed over the boards. 
It must be understood that litter is never placed on 
the hover floor, though it is kept two inches deep on 
the floor of the pen. 

Three Feeds Daily 

The following morning the inclined plane is let 
down, about five handfuls of Corning Chick Food to 
every hundred chicks is thrown into the litter, and a 
little is scattered just at the top of the inclined plane 
to entice the youngsters down. No more food is 
given until the noon hour, when, into the litter is 
thrown two handfuls to every hundred chicks, and 



130 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

again a small quantity is placed at the top. No more 
feeding is done until four o'clock when five handfuls 
of Corning Chick Food are again thrown into the 
litter. 

For the first two or three nights, or more if nec- 
essary, the chicks are quietly driven up to the hover, 
and the inclined plane pulled up after them, it being 
let down the first thing in the morning. 

Fresh water is supplied in the drinking cups each 
day, morning, noon, and night, and, with the night 
filling, a brush on the plan of those made for the 
cleansing of milk bottles, is used to give the cups a 
proper cleaning. 

On the back of the record cards, hung behind each 
hover, the mortality is kept. 

The hovers are raised every morning to learn the 
exact condition of the entire brood after the night. 

Green Food Third Day 

On the third day green food is added to the ration, 
in the form of the tops of Sprouted Oats. Never 
feed the rooty mass to the youngsters for it is almost 
sure to upset them. The smallest chick has no diffi- 
culty breaking up and getting away with Oat Sprouts 
from one and a half to two inches long, and there is 
nothing they like so well. 

Animal Food Tenth Day 

The regular ration is continued with judgment, for 
in feeding it is to be remembered that judgment must 



REARING CHICKS IN BROODER HOUSE 131 

be exercised at all times. After the tenth day animal 
food is added to the ration, commencing with a small 
handful of The Corning Egg Farm Mash, thrown on 
top of the litter. Where beef scraps are used to sup- 
ply the animal food they may be fed alone, and this 
was done at first on The Corning Egg Farm, but for 
the last three years we have fed the green bone in 
the mash mixture. It, however, must be fed with 
great care, and the bone used for this purpose must 
be most carefully selected, and must be absolutely 
fresh. 

It must be remembered that even one or two ham 
bones, or corned beef bones mixed in the ration would 
mean the loss of a great many chicks. Shank bones 
and briskets, when obtainable, are ideal for this pur- 
pose, and during the Brooding season these are selected 
out and kept for what is termed the " baby's mash." 
With the introduction on the tenth day of the Mash, 
the noon-day feeding of Corning Chick Food is dis- 
continued. 

By the time the youngsters are four weeks old the 
hovers have been removed entirely, and one finds that 
the little fellows will lie very contentedly, spread out 
on the floor, so long as the temperature in the Brooder 
House is kept up to 85 three feet above the floor, as 
before indicated. 



132 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

Avoid Moving Chicks Often 

The removal of the chicks from the hover runs 
into the nurseries, as formerly practiced on The 
Corning Egg Farm, has been entirely discontinued. 
A chick in many respects resembles a flower; every 
time it is moved or transplanted it receives a certain 
setback. For this reason the great Brooder House 
has all been turned into hover runs, and the chicks 
make one move from the Brooder House to the Colony 
House. A moving generally represents not only a 
slight setback, but some mortality through accident 
and the change itself. 

The small chick doors into the outside runs are 
opened, if the weather is propitious, about the fifth or 
sixth day in the early part of the hatching season, 
and on the third or fourth day later on. The chicks 
are never driven into the yard, any more than they 
are driven down the inclined plane, but it is always 
our method to allow the youngsters to seek a new 
field for themselves, and slowly. When they go out 
into the yard they are watched, and if there is any 
inclination to huddle up against the warm side of the 
building they are driven back into the Brooder House. 

Another great advantage of the heated Brooder 
House (and we speak of this as entirely separate 
from the heat under the hovers) is that it allows the 
chick to seek different degrees of temperature. There 
is one temperature under the hover; another tern- 



jj 



perature outside of the hover, on the hover floor; 
still another degree on the main floor of the Brooder 
House; and, then, there is the outdoor temperature. 
When the chicks are first placed under the hovers, 
during the first day, we carry the temperature at 95 
degrees, and then slowly decrease this by raising the 
hover. Where an adjustable hover is not used this 
may be accomplished by turning down the lamp. 



CHAPTER XX 

Handling Birds on Range — The Youngsters Must 
Be Kept Growing All the Time 

The birds leave the Brooder House for their 
permanent Summer home on the Colony Range, so far 
as the pullets in the flock go, at eight to nine weeks of 
age. 

The Colony Houses are prepared for the new ten- 
ants by being thoroughly sprayed with a solution of 
Kerosene and Carbolic Acid, in a proportion of one 
to five — one Carbolic and five Kerosene. Before 
spraying, the canvas drops to the windows are let 
down, and after spraying the House is left twenty- 
four hours in a perfectly closed condition, before the 
drops are raised. The floor is then covered with 
straw litter to the depth of four inches ; the five gal- 
lon drinking fountain is filled and placed on its stand 
close to the door; the feed box receives its quantity of 
mash, and the grain is scattered over the litter. 

We practice the filling of from six to eight Colony 
Houses at a time, and with this coming season of 191 2 
we shall increase that number to ten. 

The Colony Houses are raised about eight inches 
from the ground, by blocks, and, as it is not advisable 

134 



HANDLING BIRDS ON RANGE 135 

for the small birds to get under the House for the 
first few days, we have sets of boards which fit around 
the House to prevent their making the mistake of 
huddling under the House at night, instead of going 
up into it. 

A Corning Wrinkle 

Another preparation, on the outside of the House, 
is the digging of a ditch, in the shape of a crescent, 
about two feet back of the House, the ditch tapering 
out to nothing at the two ends, the dirt being thrown 
to the side away from the Colony House. All houses 
face due south. The heavy storms of the Summer 
come rushing up, as a general thing, from the west 
and northwest, and this ditch, together with the 
mound of earth back of it, prevents the rush of wind 
and rain getting under the Colony House, protecting 
the large number of chicks, that, on occasion of sud- 
den storm, collect there for shelter. It has been 
found that this materially reduces the mortality re- 
sulting from these heavy Summer showers, accom- 
panied by a strong wind. The ditch also keeps damp- 
ness entirely away from the ground under the Colony 
Houses, which is also a very great advantage. 

All being now ready at the Colony Houses, a large 
wire cage (the one now in use being eight feet long 
and two and a half feet wide, and eight inches high, 
with sliding doors at each end, and two soft leather 
handles to carry it by) is placed at the door opening 



136 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

into the chick runs from the Brooder House, and the 
youngsters are quietly driven into the cage. When 
a sufficient number to carry safely has been driven in, 
the cage is carried out, placed on the wagon and 
driven to the Range. The birds at this time are from 
eight to nine weeks old, we having found it is better 
to have a sufficient amount of brooder room to carry 
them to this age before placing on Range, as they 
are then much better feathered, and are less affected 
by changes of atmosphere. 

When the cages reach the Colony House the sliding 
door is placed directly in front of the small chick door, 
and both slides pulled up, and the chicks gently coaxed, 
by patting the box on the top and sides, to leave it 
for the Colony House. We place in each of these 
Colony Houses from two hundred and fifty to three 
hundred birds of this age. 

As the cockerels develop they are separated, and 
those which are perfect in formation, and as to toes, 
five pointed combs, etc., and give promise of growing 
into proper Breeders, are placed in the Cockerel House, 
and given the Range of the large enclosure surround- 
ing this House. 

Until well along in the Summer, when the young- 
sters are first placed in the Colony House, we make 
it a practice to hang, directly in the center of the 
House and within about three feet of the floor, a large 
barn lantern, and with the window drops closed this 
produces a very considerable amount of heat, and 




1 ' .Oy« liltn 




HANDLING BIRDS ON RANGE 137 

helps materially to give a feeling of comfort and con- 
tentment to the birds in their new quarters. 

The afternoon following the day in which chicks 
are put into the Colony Houses (which means that 
they have been confined for about twenty-four hours), 
they are let out, but not until four o'clock, and they 
find their grain ration scattered close to the door of 
the House. In fact, it is not scattered until the small 
chick doors are opened for them to come out, and 
then it is thrown on the runs, and through the doors, 
as well as on the ground directly in front. The 
grain lying in the runways acts in a double way ; it 
entices them out, and as they see it on the ground they 
eat very little on the runs, but later, after they have 
cleaned up all on the ground, that lying on the chick 
runs attracts them on back into the House at night. 

The reason for letting the birds out so late in the day 
for their first outing is that a chicken, late in the day, 
will never go any great distance from where it has 
been confined, but works around close to the quarters 
in which it has spent the previous hours, and naturally 
returns there for shelter as the Sun goes down. The 
following morning the chick doors are opened and 
the birds allowed to roam at will. 

Grain and Mash Once a Day 

From this on the regular routine of Range feeding 
is followed. The Range Feed Wagon is low geared 
and broad tired. On the rear of the wagon there is 



138 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

a large, square tank, carrying some two hundred gal- 
lons of water. The faucet for drawing the water is 
placed on the bottom and center of the rear, the tank 
being placed on the wagon with a slight incline, and 
is of inch size so as to facilitate the rapid filling of 
the drinking fountains, which are placed directly un- 
derneath it. The front part of the wagon carries the 
tubs of mash and the grain ration. As the Colony 
Houses are laid out symmetrically the broad tires of 
the wagon soon wear smooth roads in front of them, 
and heavy loads are readily pulled over the Range 
streets. The Houses are placed from side to side 
about eighty feet apart. From the front of the Houses 
on one street to the rear of the House on the next 
street is about one hundred feet. 

The question of shelter on the Range was quite a 
problem at first, and to meet it in a measure we set out 
shelters, which were constructed by stretching roofing 
over frames about twelve feet square, and set up 
some two and a half feet on stakes driven into the 
ground. 

It had been planned to carry the Colony Range in 
Timothy and Clover, but we lost the catch, and as the 
ground had been very heavily fertilized with the litter 
from the Laying Houses, a very rank and luxuriant 
growth of all kinds of Flora sprang up, and we found 
that what seemed to us a piece of very hard luck in 
losing the catch, was really a blessing in disguise, for 
this rank growth of Flora, even in its first year, was 



HANDLING BIRDS ON RANGE 139 

of sufficient height to give very considerable shelter 
to the large flocks on the Range, and with the Colony 
Houses just off the ground, the improvised shelters 
were practically abandoned by the birds, and so they 
have been removed. 

Plenty of Shade 

With the yearly scattering of the increased amount 
of litter as the Farm enlarged, the growth on the 
Range is becoming more and more luxuriant, and 
now the entire Range has a succession of changing 
Flora from month to month, and with some varieties, 
almost from week to week. There is a considerable 
growth of Timothy and Clover, and many other 
varieties of the grass family, which produce a varied 
diet of succulent food, and of course the constant 
change in Flora also supplies a varied diet of seeds 
which the birds harvest for themselves. Any oats 
and wheat which have been missed in the litter from 
the Laying Houses sprout here, and the birds also 
harvest this crop for themselves. The condition of 
the Range under this method of handling, as we view 
it, is absolutely ideal for the growing youngsters. 

Fresh water is supplied daily to the Houses, and the 
grain ration consists of two-thirds wheat, and one- 
third cracked corn. The amount of grain fed to each 
Colony House depends upon the cleaning up of it by 
the tenants of this particular House. The mash box 
is filled daily with what is now known as the Corning 



140 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

Range Mash, which consists of wheat middlings, bran, 
ground oats, corn meal, and a sufficient amount of 
green bone, when mechanically mixed in a machine 
which has been designed by the Farm for this purpose, 
to give the mash a slight feeling of moisture, which 
is derived entirely from the juices of the bone. 

There is not so great a proportion of animal food in 
this Range Mash as in the mash for the layers, and it 
should be noticed that there is in it no gluten or oil 
meal. The early hatches particularly are not forced 
along quite so rapidly, and are less liable to go into a 
Winter moult than if they get these ingredients, and 
should they moult it comes at a later date and does 
not extend over so long a period. 

On such a range it is not necessary to have so great 
a proportion of animal food in the mash, because the 
floral growth harbors myriads of worms and insects, 
which supply a large part of the animal food needed. 

Removed to Laying House Middle of September 

It is now our plan to allow the early hatched pul- 
lets to remain on the Range until the first or second 
week in September, according to the weather and the 
way they are laying. 

The time has now arrived for taking up the first fif- 
teen hundred pullets. 

The Laying House has been previously prepared 
for their reception, by removing all the old litter, the 
nest boxes having been scraped and brushed out, and 




w 
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2; 

o 

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O 
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HANDLING BIRDS ON RANGE 141 

the House then thoroughly swept, and all the corners 
cleaned out with a scraper, after which, with all the 
doors and drops closed, it is subjected to a most 
thorough spraying with Kerosene and Crude Car- 
bolic, in the same proportions given in the earlier 
part of this chapter. This spraying covers every part 
of the House, and is done with a force pump, so 
that the solution is forced into every nook and 
cranny. The House is then bedded down with about 
eight inches of fresh straw, the nest boxes made ready 
with excelsior, and the mash for that day placed in 
the two mash boxes in each section, under the drop- 
ping boards. The grain is scattered in the litter, this 
being all done before the birds are brought to the 
house, so as to obviate the necessity of disturbing 
them more than is absolutely necessary for the first 
twenty-four hours in their new quarters. 

The birds having been left shut up in the Colony 
Houses, a wire hook is used to catch them, and a 
man who is accustomed to using it, standing at the 
door, reaches in and easily catches one pullet after 
another by the leg, gently pulls her to the door and 
hands her out to the man in waiting, who drops her 
quietly into a large box, on the Farm Wagon, with 
an opening, provided with a slide at the top. These 
boxes are carried right into the Laying House, when 
the entire front slides out, thus releasing the birds all 
at once, and any chance of struggling through a small 
opening and injuring themselves, is done away with. 



i 4 2 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

The method used in accustoming the birds in the 
Colony Houses to get on without artificial heat is as 
follows : for the first three or four nights, depend- 
ing on the coolness of the weather, all canvas drops 
are down, and a large, lighted, stable lantern is hung 
in the House. For the next few nights after the 
lantern is removed the drops are left closed. Then 
one drop is propped out an inch or two, and from 
night to night the opening is increased, until the drop 
is left up altogether. After that, for a few nights, 
one drop is left up and the other closed. Next, the 
second drop is slowly worked up in the manner de- 
scribed, until it reaches the height of the hook. 
After this they are never lowered again so long as 
the birds remain on the Range. 



CHAPTER XXI 

Feeding for Eggs — Wholesome Nourishment — 
Not Destructive Stimulants 

Unless a hen is properly fed she may have been 
purchased from the greatest strain of layers that it is 
possible to imagine, and still you may have an empty 
nest so far as eggs go. 

The food which the hen takes into her system goes 
first to supply her bodily wants, the surplus she turns 
into eggs, and if properly bred she will turn that sur- 
plus into profit very rapidly. 

Easy Assimilation 

She must be fed, then, so as to have what is gen- 
erally termed a " balanced ration," which really means 
a ration supplying all her different wants. 

She must be fed so as to be able to assimilate her 
food with ease. She might be fed a ration which she 
could easily digest, but the ration might not so as- 
similate and combine as to be an egg maker. 

The greatest factor in assimilation is proper green 
food, and the hen should have this in a crisp, succu- 
lent state, and plenty of it. The egg being to such 
a large extent formed of water, unless she is sup- 

143 



144 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

plied with all the drinking water she will take, your 
labor will go for naught, and the hen will not be able 
to lay eggs. 

Her grain ration must be of the best, and it should 
be fed in such a way that she is forced to work for it. 

Perfect Health or No Eggs 

If Biddy is to lay, she must be kept in perfect 
health, and without exercise that is impossible. 

She must live in a house without draughts but in 
which the air is always fresh by means of perfect 
ventilation, and she must have sunshine. 

Her quarters must be kept clean and sweet, and a 
good supply of coarse oyster shell, sharp grit, or 
sifted, hard coal ashes, should be always accessible in 
quantities. 

Abundant Animal Food 

She must have an abundance of animal food, 
either in form of green cut bone, or beef scraps, 
and this should be mixed as we feed it in The Corning 
Egg Farm Mash, which is a mixture of different 
meals in which the animal food is thoroughly dis- 
tributed. Of grain, to one hundred hens, eight quarts 
of a mixture of wheat, corn and oats, should be 
given; in Summer, about two-thirds wheat and one- 
third cracked corn, reducing the wheat to a third and 
increasing the corn to about two-thirds in cold 
weather, adding to this; mixture at all times two 



FEEDING FOR EGGS 145 

quarts of oats. That is to say, six quarts of wheat 
and corn and two quarts of oats. 

The Corning Mash the Secret 

The amount of Mash fed in the troughs varies in 
accordance with the way the birds clean it up. The 
point aimed at being to feed in each House the quan- 
tity that the birds will about clean up, by roosting 
time. The intention is that their first food in the 
morning shall be obtained by their vigorous scratch- 
ing in the litter. All the .grain is fed at one time, 
in the afternoon, and is not forked into the litter, 
as the birds have worked all day up to this time, it 
is desired that they fill up rather easily from feeding 
time till dark. As they move and scratch they bury 
the surplus grain most effectively in the litter, thus 
saving considerable labor, which is expended on 
many poultry farms, by using the pitch fork to place 
the grain deep in the straw. 

When the pullets are first put into the Laying 
House, about ten pounds of Mash is placed in each 
trough, this being estimated as sufficient for each 
one hundred birds. If it is not cleaned up, the 
amount, the next clay, is decreased, but if entirely 
consumed the quantity is increased. 

Over and over again it is stated in articles that 
large quantities of animal food and rich meals in the 
mash are very stimulating and wear the hen out. 
This is a great mistake. When the hen is being sup- 



146 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

plied with the proper ingredients for a large egg 
production she is not being stimulated, but rather 
helped and sustained in the natural way. 

" Egg Foods " Kill Layers 

On the market, to-day, is found an ever increas- 
ing number of preparations advertised as " egg 
foods"; "foods" warranted to produce eggs with- 
out fail and in record breaking quantities. An 
analysis of almost any of these concoctions discloses 
the fact that Capsicum, or in other words red pep- 
per, is the basis of the preparation, or at least it is 
the ingredient in the mixture which is counted upon 
to produce the advertised results, namely, the certain 
and great output of eggs. If fed in sufficient quan- 
tities to actually stimulate the egg organs of the hen 
it must in a short time kill her, but if it should not 
have this effect, it certainly does put her in such a 
condition that she is worthless as a layer. It must 
be constantly borne in mind that the production of 
eggs is not a question of stimulation, but is the put- 
ting of the hen into a perfect condition of health, 
keeping her in that condition, and supplying her with 
foods which are egg making substances, and which 
nourish her completely, and allow a surplus to be 
turned into eggs. 

On The Corning Egg Farm, this plan has always 
been the line along which we have worked, supply- 
ing the hen with the natural ingredients from which, 



FEEDING FOR EGGS 147 

in a healthy state, she is able to produce the greatest 
number of large, sanitary eggs. 

Mustard Increases Egg Laying 

For the last three years experiments have been car- 
ried on with mustard. It had been accidently noticed 
that table scraps, containing some of the leavings of 
a salad where mustard had been used, and which had 
been thrown out to a few barn-yard hens, were 
greedily devoured. It was further observed that, 
after a few days, the egg production increased. Fol- 
lowing this interesting discovery, quite an exhaustive 
test was carried on with eighteen hens, running over 
a period of twelve months. The Corning Egg Farm 
followed this experiment with considerable interest. 
Six of the hens were fed an ordinary ration ; six of 
them were given Red Pepper, and the other half dozen 
were fed mustard mixed in their food. At the end 
of the test all the hens were killed and carefully ex- 
amined. The organs of the six hens which were 
fed an ordinary ration were found to be in fair shape, 
and those fed red pepper had enlarged livers. The 
six hens which were fed the mustard were found to 
be in perfect organic condition, and they had been 
in good healthy shape all through the entire twelve 
months. They had produced a considerable per- 
centage of eggs beyond either of the other two pens. 
As a matter of fact the hens fed on the pepper laid 
fewer eggs than those fed the ordinary ration. 



148 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

Now, the mustard used in this experiment was 
highly concentrated table mustard, and while the cost, 
where only six hens were being fed with it, amounted 
to very little, on a large plant like The Corning Farm, 
the question of cost becomes a serious item. Whether 
to feed concentrated mustard or a mustard bran was 
found to be worthy of careful consideration, because 
it was impossible to get nearly as perfect a mixture 
in the Mash, with a small quantity of highly concen- 
trated mustard, as with a mustard not so strong but 
running three times the amount in bulk. As an illus- 
tration of the advisability of introducing the mustard 
in form of bran we might say that, by using a small 
quantity of one certain meal carrying a very high 
percentage of protein, it would be possible to intro- 
duce into the Mash the amount of protein desired, but 
by using a number of meals, each carrying a small 
percentage of protein, a much better Mash results, 
and every bird is able to get its due and necessary 
proportion of the ingredients. 

Mustard Increases Fertility 

The three pens before mentioned, after being fed 
as described through the Winter months, were mated 
in the month of March, and it was found that the 
fertility of the eggs of the mustard fed pen far ex- 
ceeded that of either of the other pens, and that the 
resulting chicks were much stronger, developed bet- 
ter, and were altogether more desirable than the 



FEEDING FOR EGGS 149 

chicks produced where the birds had been fed merely 
the ordinary ration, and where the attempt had been 
made to stimulate the egg production by the use of 
red pepper. 

The exact action of mustard, in the animal or hu- 
man being, is a somewhat disputed point, but the 
Medical Fraternity seems to agree that it increases 
the secretion of gastric juices, and very decidedly 
promotes good digestion. 

A great layer must be a large eater, but she can- 
not be a large eater unless she is kept in perfect 
health, and has the necessary appetite which only 
comes when in a strong, robust, vigorous condition. 

The Corning Egg Farm has fed mustard in a way 
that it has never been fed before; the egg produc- 
tion has increased very materially; the percentage of 
fertility has run considerably higher; the germs have 
been strong, large, hatchable germs, and the resulting 
chicks have come into existence with a jump and, 
where they have been properly handled, have rapidly 
grown into sturdy youngsters. 

4,000 Layers Fed Mustard 

We started to feed our breeding pens with mustard 
in the Mash just at the time we desired them to come 
into eggs, and they responded at once. That is to 
say, after the Mash containing mustard had been fed 
to them for about a week, the egg output increased 
daily, and not only did it increase, but the high marks 



T50 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

which were reached were steadily maintained. Four 
thousand layers have been fed mustard in their Mash 
daily, and after months of this feeding the flocks 
have never been in better health, and the egg produc- 
tion has never been equaled even on The Corning 
Egg Farm. 

The Mustard Bran is about twenty-five per cent, of 
the cost of table mustard. 

Mustard Maintains Health 

The experiment with mustard, with the eighteen 
hens, was carried on over a term of twelve months. 
We do not believe, however, that it is wise to feed 
mustard to the layers and breeders after June 15th, 
unless the early months of Summer should prove to 
be exceptionally cool. The mustard nourishes very 
strongly and puts an immense amount of red cor- 
puscles into the blood, so that if continued into warm 
weather the hen is not in best condition to stand ex- 
treme Summer heat. 

It is not necessary to gradually decrease the mus- 
tard, but it may be simply cut right out of the Mash 
without any detrimental effect. 

Keep Appetite Keen 

The great thing, then, to be remembered, when one 
is feeding for eggs is constant watchfulness of the 
flock, to so feed that the appetite is always keen, but 
yet the necessities of the bird fully satisfied ; to be 



FEEDING FOR EGGS 151 

most watchful as to the exercise the bird is forced to 
take for its grain ration, and to keep the litter deep. 
Right in this connection we may say, a deep litter does 
not necessarily mean one that is so broken up and 
packed together that the grain cannot readily sift 
through it. The litter straw should be constantly 
added to so as to offer a surface that the grain will 
readily sift through. 

For the past years, in feeding the layers, The 
Corning Egg Farm Mash was prepared on Sundays 
and fed exactly as on any other day of the week. 
With the increase of the work on the Farm it has 
been a study to lighten Sunday labor as much as 
possible. 

On investigating the litter around the Mash Boxes 
there will always be found a certain amount of Mash 
that has been scratched out of the troughs, and to 
a certain extent neglected. The experiment was 
therefore made of omitting the Mash on Sunday, 
and at once Biddy became extremely energetic in her 
efforts to extract from the litter every particle of Mash 
which she had wasted through the week. It is quite 
possible that by continuing the Mash ration on Sun- 
day a trifle higher egg average might be maintained 
throughout the week. When the cost of feeding is 
figured in, however, it is found that there is a real 
saving in discontinuing the Mash for one day. The 
plan has now been in operation for over eight months, 
and there is no reason, so far as can be seen, why the 



152 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

old method of preparing the Mash seven days in the 
week should be returned to. The economy lies in 
the fact that Biddy cleans up what might otherwise 
be a considerable waste, and in this way supplies her- 
self with a fair mash ration for the one day. 

Of course the green food and the grain ration are 
fed exactly as on any other day. 

The original experiments in mustard feeding, re- 
ferred to in this chapter, were conducted by Messrs. 
Ralph R. Allen, Editor of Monthly Hints on Poultry, 
and Mr. A. J. Odam, at Llangammarch Wells Poul- 
try Farm, Great Britain. 



CHAPTER XXII 

Breeding Hens During Moult — Coming Breeders 
Must be Kept Exercising Through This Period 

The hens which are to be breeders and the produc- 
ers of the hatching eggs for the coming Spring are 
selected as early in the Fall as possible. The quar- 
ters into which they are to be moved would have been 
most carefully cleansed, and then disinfected with 
Kerosene and Crude Carbolic. After this, fresh, clean 
litter would be put in, and for these yearling hens we 
make it a practice to place eight inches of straw on 
the floor, for they have well learned the lesson of 
digging in the litter and very rapidly knock the straw 
to pieces. 

The tendency of a hen during the moult is to be 
inactive. In many cases she feels far from com- 
fortable. The growing of her new dress is a process 
which drains her system of an immense amount of 
vitality, still she must be made to take a certain 
amount of exercise, and therefore the litter must be 
constantly looked after, and kept in a condition 
which will compel her to work persistently for her 
grain ration. 

153 



154 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

Do Not Overfeed 

The Mash Boxes are most carefully watched, and 
the moment there is the slightest inclination not to 
clean the Mash up thoroughly, the quantity is cut 
down. 

It would be somewhat easier if all the hens would 
moult simultaneously, but this they do not do, and so 
the needs of the different individuals during the moult- 
ing period have to be looked after. 

With the Leghorn, the combs shrink, and almost 
go down to nothing in many cases. It is quite im- 
possible, in looking over a large number of yearling 
hens at this time in their lives, to believe that the 
great, red comb will ever return, and it is a curious 
fact that, in the majority of cases, the yearling hen's 
comb is never as large as it was in her pullet year. 

As the combs begin to redden and their size in- 
crease, the flock becomes more active, and it is nec- 
essary to add to the amount of Mash, and, if it had 
been found expedient to reduce the grain ration, this 
also must be brought back to the full eight quarts to 
one hundred hens. 

From day to day the Mash consumption increases 
rapidly, and the nests begin to receive a good deal of 
attention, and very shortly the output from the breed- 
ing pens becomes a very decided item in the gather- 
ing of eggs. 

By the second week in January, the pen having 



BREEDING HENS DURING MOULT 155 

been handled in the best possible way, the egg output 
has reached a point where it will be safe to mate the 
pen, and in two weeks after this the eggs should be 
running strongly fertile. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

Feeding the Breeding Cockerels 

These birds are fed green food about eight o'clock 
in the morning. In good weather it is fed in their 
large range yard, where the attendant scatters it in 
small bunches over a wide area. At 1 1 130 is fed 
to every hundred birds, six quarts of corn, wheat 
and oats, two-thirds corn, the wheat and oats making 
up the other third. This is also distributed widely 
over the yard. In this way the cockerels are kept 
busy hunting for food, and they are less likely to 
get into broils with each other for entertainment. 

At 1 130 o'clock they are allowed to return to their 
House, having been shut out during the morning 
hours. The Mash is fed daily at 1 :3c and a suffi- 
cient amount is placed in their troughs for them to 
thoroughly clean up by roosting time. 

Sufficient grain is fed in the litter in the House to 
make the quantity for the day's rations about eight 
quarts for one hundred birds. 



156 



CHAPTER XXIV 

Preparing Surplus Cockerels for Market 

The growing cockerels, fed in the same way as 
the pullets up to six or eight weeks of age, will be, 
in the majority of cases, in prime condition to have 
the finishing touches applied to round them out into 
the best possible weight at the age for market. 

We, of course, do not go into the various liquid 
foods which are fed with a pump, but simply the 
most inexpensive and rapid way of putting the birds 
in a condition to return the most money in the short- 
est possible time. Corn, in its different forms, is, per- 
haps, the most fattening food which can be fed, and 
for the cockerels intended for market, the grain ration 
consists of nothing but corn, and as much of it as they 
will clean up. 

If it is possible to give the time to it, the mash, 
fed three times a day, will produce the finest quality 
flesh. A mash made from corn meal, ground oats, 
gluten meal, middlings and bran, in equal parts, with 
beef scrap, or green cut bone, equal to the total of 
the meals, and moistened so that the birds can choke 
it down in large quantities, will produce the result 
better, perhaps, than anything else. 

157 



158 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

Must Have Green Food 

Green food, however, should be given the bird at 
the most convenient hour in between the other feed- 
ings. If to save time in feeding was an object, a 
very good schedule is to feed corn first thing in the 
morning, green food at about ten o'clock, and, be- 
tween two and three, the exact quantity of mash as 
described. If mash alone is fed, it is best to feed 
each time only what the birds will clean up in from 
thirty to forty minutes, the troughs in which it is 
placed then being removed. 



CHAPTER XXV 

$6.41 Per Hen Per Year 

Corning Method and Strain Enabling Others to 

Better $6.41 

The figures at the head of this chapter have become 
famous, and, perhaps, in the way of small things, rep- 
resent as great a bone of contention as has been squab- 
bled over for many a year. And yet there really was 
nothing so extraordinary in the profit. It repre- 
sented a large amount of careful work and study, a 
keen business administration, a careful looking after 
of all the little details, the preserving of all by-products 
and selling them at a figure which was actually under 
their true value, as was proven in later years by better 
prices obtained. 

For instance, the fertilizer made on the Farm has 
been so handled that its returns to the owners are 
much greater than when these figures were given to 
the public. The Corning Egg Farm was very much 
criticised in numerous statements made in the differ- 
ent papers throughout the country as to the authen- 
ticity of these figures, and, to put it in clear Anglo- 
Saxon, many writers indulged quite freely in the word 
so much used by one of the distinguished Presidents 
of the United States, and threw the lie indiscriminately 

159 



160 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

at everything and everybody connected with The 
Corning Egg Farm. 

After a time the humor of the situation dawned 
upon those who were being so adversely criticized. 
The fact is, the critics were people who wanted to 
gauge everything in the World by their own little yard 
stick. They did not themselves know how to make 
$6.41 per hen per year, and, therefore, they reasoned 
it out that the man did not exist who could. One 
fact entirely overlooked by these profound writers on 
poultry subjects was that two dollars of this profit 
was made by the sale of the hen at the end of ten 
months of laying. 

In the last few years there have appeared in the 
advertising columns of numerous publications, claims 
by a man selling a book in which he asserts he made 
$120.00 per hen, in twelve months, in a back-yard. 
Another individual blossomed forth with a statement 
of ten dollars and fifty odd cents profit per hen per 
year, but these statements did not excite widespread 
criticism. They were statements of men who were 
doing a back-yard business, with from ten to twenty 
hens, and were, therefore, simply looked upon as ridic- 
ulous and not entitled to serious consideration. 

$6.41 Not Extravagant Claim 

But The Corning Egg Farm "$6.41 per hen, per 
year " was not an extravagant claim, and the figures 
showing just exactly how it had been accomplished 



$6.41 PER HEN PER YEAR 161 

were plainly set forth. It was not done with twenty- 
hens in a back-yard, but on a large, commercial scale, 
and an extensive business was in active operation. 

The methods were so entirely new, and the results 
so unprecedented, that poultry writers and lecturers 
hastily declared them fantastic, without the careful in- 
vestigation to which they were entitled, and proceeded 
to wholesale condemnation of the figures, the methods, 
and everything else connected with the Farm. 

However, later, the majority of our critics have vis- 
ited The Corning Egg Farm, and have seen what we 
have, what we are doing, and satisfied themselves thor- 
oughly that every statement made was well within the 
facts. 

It will be noticed that the profit of $6.41 was fig- 
ured with the cockerels selling at the live weight price 
of broilers, and when no hatching eggs were sold. 

Corning Farm Making More Than $6.41 

At The Corning Egg Farm, to-day, the hen is mak- 
ing considerably more than $6.41 per year. A large 
number of cockerels, which formerly brought merely 
the live weight broiler price, are now being reared and 
disposed of for breeders. Hatching eggs are sold in 
large quantities, but, it must be remembered, before 
one can reach this point, his Strain of birds must be 
brought to a high point of perfection, he must estab- 
lish his reputation, and his customers must find his 
claims are substantiated. As an illustration, purchas- 



162 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

ers of hatching eggs from The Corning Egg Farm, 
in the season of 1910, came back with orders for the 
season of 191 1 increased by the multiple of ten, and 
these same customers are already booking large orders 
in September and October, 191 1, for the hatching sea- 
son of 1912. 

This chapter is written to emphasize our statement 
that anyone possessed of the ordinary qualifications to 
succeed with poultry, can, by following The Corning 
Egg Farm Method, surely build up a large and profit- 
able business. 



CHAPTER XXVI 

The Buildings on the Corning Egg Farm 

The Buildings on the The Corning Egg Farm, at 
the close of the year 191 1, were as follows: 

No. 1 — Brooder House, with Incubator and 
Sprouted Oats Cellars underneath. 

No. 2 — Work Shop, Grain Bins, Egg Packing 
Room, Refrigerator Room, and Quar- 
ters for the Resident Foreman, all un- 
der one roof. 

No. 3 — Breeding House. 

No. 4 — Laying House No. 1. 

No. 5 — Laying House No. 2. 

No. 6 — Laying House No. 3. 

No. 7 — Line Breeding House. 

No. 8 — Breeding Cockerel House. 

No. 9 — Horse Stable. 

No. 10 — Wagon Shed. 

No. 11 — 41 Colony Houses Scattered over the 
Range. 

No. 12 — Office Building. 

To give an idea of the magnitude of The Corning 
Egg Farm, there are under roof 18,455 square feet of 
floor space. 

163 



164 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

No. i. Brooder House, Incubator and Sprouted Oats 

Cellars 

This building is 264 feet in length, and consists 
really of two buildings. When this structure was 
first erected it was sixteen feet wide and fifty feet in 
length. The Incubator Cellar is entirely of concrete 
construction, with a Brooder House one story in height 
above it. The floor joists were all beam filled, mak- 
ing the building rat proof. The second year it be- 
came necessary to enlarge the Brooder House, and an 
extension was built, sixty-eight feet in length, and set 
up on cedar posts, with concrete filled in on top of the 
sills between the floor joists, making this part of the 
building also rat-proof. 

After using this Brooder House and Incubator Cel- 
lar for three seasons a still further enlargement be- 
came an absolute necessity. Sixteen feet has been, 
and still is, the standard width of Laying Houses on 
The Corning Egg Farm. It lias been found, however, 
with the Brooder House, an additional width is desir- 
able in order to give the chicks more roomy runs when 
confined by bad weather to the House alone. Mainly 
for this reason, the 191 1 addition to the Brooder 
House has been made twenty-two feet in width. This 
new building is 146 feet in length. It is joined on 
to the old building in such a way that the alley-way 
merely widens at the point of connection, thus making 
one continuous House. 



THE BUILDINGS 165 

The interior arrangement of a four foot alley-way, 
the entire length of the building, along the north wall, 
greatly facilitates the feeding, watering, and general 
care of the chicks, without disturbing them by passing 
through the pens. 

The raised hover floor starts at the south side of 
this alley-way, and is raised about a foot so as to 
allow the passing underneath of the hot water trunk 
line, with its perfect insulation. Attached to this 
hover floor, by hinges, is an inclined runway, which 
is raised or lowered by a cord running through pul- 
ley wheels and fastened by cleats to the north wall. 

The division wires between the pens are of inch 
mesh, four feet high, brought down to a ten inch board 
which is securely fastened to the floor. 

The ventilation is acquired by the use of V-shaped 
window drops, placed just under the plate, full de- 
tailed drawing of which is given in the back of this 
Book. The bottom of the windows, on the south front 
of the building, are three feet above the floors, and 
these windows are forty- four inches in length and 
thirty-six inches in width. They are hung at the top, 
and are opened and closed by the same sort of de- 
vice used in churches for the " Cathedral " window. 
The holes in the fastening irons are about two inches 
apart, allowing the window to be firmly held open to 
any degree desired. 

There is a slide board at the back of the hover, 
which is easily raised, materially assisting in the quick 



1 66 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

and perfect cleansing of the hover floor. Hanging 
above this, and using the slide board as a sill, is a 
gate which extends to the height of the wire division, 
and swings out, giving the attendant ready access to 
the hover, drinking cups, etc. 

The whole Brooder House is heated by hot water 
coils, extending along the entire length of the north 
wall of the building. These are of two inch pipe, and 
in the sixteen feet part of the building there are six, 
while in the twenty-two foot extension there are eight 
pipes. 

As stated, the Brooder House is built over the Incu- 
bator and Sprouted Oats Cellars. The Sprouted Oats 
Cellar is entirely of concrete, and the floor slopes to 
one point, where drains carry off the water, allowing 
the frames to slowly drain themselves, and preventing 
the oats from rotting from an over supply of moisture. 

Access is given to the Incubator Cellar by a vesti- 
bule in which are located broad stairways, enabling one 
to go from the Cellar to the Brooder House without 
going outdoors. 

The heater room occupies the first 30 feet of this 
Cellar, and is divided from the incubator room proper 
by an eight inch concrete wall. In this heater room 
is the large hot water boiler which heats the Brooder 
House, above. There are also two automatic heat- 
ers, controlling the trunk line pipes for the heating of 
the air passing up under the hovers in the Brooder 
House. The incubator heaters also stand in this room, 



THE BUILDINGS 167 

the pipes passing through the division wall, connecting 
with the incubators on the other side. 

The floor is smooth surface concrete, there being 
a gentle slope in the heater room all to one corner, 
where a drain carries off the water used in flushing 
the floor. This same arrangement exists also in the 
Incubator Cellar proper, allowing the hose to be used 
in flooding the floor twice a day to give the proper 
amount of moisture for incubation. 

The concrete blocks used in the construction of this 
Cellar are what is known as rock faced, and the face 
is on the inside, pointed up in black. The floor joists 
overhead are dressed lumber, and are painted in the 
following manner: the priming coat is almost pure 
oil with just enough lead to give it a whitish tinge; 
the next coat is dead white, flat finish, and the third 
is white enamel of the best stock obtainable. The in- 
cubators are finished in the same way, allowing the 
whole Cellar to be literally scrubbed with a brush. 

This Cellar has no duplicate, anywhere. 

Building No. 2, Work Shop, etc. 

The Work Shop proper is twenty by thirty feet, on 
a concrete foundation, with a cement floor. The 
height from the floor to the rafters is ten feet in the 
clear. In this room stands a ten horse power Gaso- 
lene Engine, and a large Mixer, the second Mixer 
designed by The Corning Egg Farm, which produces 
a mix in less time, and with less power, than any 



1 68 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

other machine to-day on the market. With the nec- 
essary meals and green cut bone, in seven minutes the 
juices from the bone are so uniformly distributed 
throughout the entire mass that it is almost impossible 
to believe that no water has been added. The weight 
of a mix will average about five hundred pounds. In 
experiments with beef scrap in The Corning Egg Farm 
Mash, in ten minutes' time the meals are completely 
coated with oils which come from good beef scrap 
when properly mixed. This Mixer is now being made 
by Wilson Bros., Easton, Pa., in different sizes, from 
hand to horse power, to meet the needs of large and 
small plants. 

The Bone Cutter is also made by Wilson Bros., and, 
in our opinion, is the best Bone Cutter on the market, 
and we have tried all the different designs. Wilson 
Bros, manufacture these cutters in all sizes, from hand 
power up to the large one which they first built for 
The Corning Egg Farm, and we have graduated in 
size, during the past years from a hand power to the 
Large Cutter now in use. 

There is also a large Clover Cutter, which will cut 
in various lengths from a quarter of an inch to an inch 
and a half. The necessary pulleys and hangers for 
this machine are placed in the rafters above. 

Built into the rear and sides of this room are the 
various grain bins, compactly arranged to reduce the 
labor of handling to a minimum. 

In the Work Shop is also a bench, with vices, etc., 



THE BUILDINGS 169 

and cupboards, built into the walls, where complete 
kits of tools for carpentry, plumbing, hot water fitting, 
etc., are kept, in order that the mechanical work, so 
far as repairs and keeping up the efficiency of the 
plant go, is done without calling in outside labor. 

Back of the Shop, and connecting with it, is the Egg 
Packing Room, with its necessary arrangement of 
shelves, tables, etc., for the work carried on there. 

To the rear of the Egg Packing Room, but having 
no connection with it whatever, is the room in which 
the large Freezer stands, for the preservation of green 
bone. The concrete floor in this room is sloped to 
a drain so that it may be thoroughly cleansed every 
day after the bone is taken out or put into the Freezer. 
The Freezer itself has a capacity of 2500 lbs. of 
bone, but the room, under ordinary conditions of 
weather, maintains such a temperature that there is 
no difficulty in carrying bone in barrels, standing 
around the room, which increases our storing capacity 
to more than double the quantity. 

On the second floor of the Work Shop is a com- 
plete and modern apartment in which the working 
foreman lives. 

Building No. 9, Horse Stable 

This is constructed on the general plan of all the 
buildings on the Farm, with capacity for four horses, 
and with necessary room for hay, etc., in the loft 
above. 



lyo THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

A large shed is built at the rear of the stable, in 
which bins are constructed for the carrying of grit 
and shell, and also for the storage of packing crates 
for eggs. 

Building No. 10, Wagon Shed 

This is conveniently placed to the stable, and is 
twenty by forty feet, with four sets of double doors, 
allowing the placing of vehicles without interfering 
with those already inside. 

Building No. 12, Office Building 

Conveniently arranged in three rooms covering a 
floor space of nine hundred and twenty-five square 
feet, hot water heated, and with electric lights. 




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CHAPTER XXVII 

Construction of Laying, Breeding, and Breeding 
Cockerel Houses 

The Breeding and Laying Houses, on The Corning 
Egg Farm, are all built in the manner described in the 
remainder of this chapter, and are each 160 feet long. 
The Breeding Cockerel House is 60 feet in length. 
These Houses are all fifteen feet, nine inches, in width, 
the drawing in of them being three inches for the pur- 
pose of making the roof rafters, which are sixteen feet 
in length, readily reach out to the end of the plates, 
on the slant which they carry. The height of the 
buildings from the ground, over all, is twelve feet, two 
inches at the back and fourteen feet, two inches in 
front. 

The interior of these buildings is divided into 
20 foot sections, by partitions extending out from the 
north wall of the buildings, seven feet, and forming 
the roosting closets. These partitions run from the 
floor clear to the ceiling, breaking the draughts, which 
but for them, would make the long Laying Houses ut- 
terly impracticable. 

The north wall of the Laying House is five feet high 
in the clear, the south wall being seven feet. This 

171 



172 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

makes a sufficient height for walking through the 
building without stooping, and, as the bottom of the 
windows is carried up three feet from the floor, the 
window itself going up to the plate under the roof, 
the Sun reaches every part of the House of practically 
sixteen feet wide. 

Nearly Six Feet from Ground 

The buildings are all set on posts, three feet in the 
ground and five feet above. The floor joists are ten 
inches in width and two inches thick, and, instead of 
the usual sill, two by ten planks are spiked at both ends 
of these floor joists resting on the posts which support 
the building. This construction is much simpler than 
the ordinary sills, and is also less expensive. 

The posts are eight feet apart and well braced. 
They are cross tied at the corners, and about every 
fifty feet throughout the building; they are also braced 
at the ends. 

The floor joists are placed three feet apart, and the 
uprights are made of two by four joists, placed three 
feet apart. At the corners of the House the upright 
supports are doubled, making the corner posts equiva- 
lent to four by four. 

The construction of these buildings without any pro- 
jections over the top of the roof has two advantages. 
First, there is a saving in the quantity of lumber used 
and in labor expended; second, all the joints of the 
roof and walls are made tighter, and the lapping of 



CONSTRUCTION OF HOUSES 173 

the roofing over the edges of the building and cement- 
ing it make all joints absolutely air and water tight. 

Double Floors 

The floors are all built double. The under floor 
may be of any kind of rough boards, and carefully 
covered over with one ply roofing of any good quality, 
the laps, as elsewhere in the building, being carefully 
cemented and nailed down with large, flat headed, gal- 
vanized nails made for the purpose. The upper floor 
should be of a cheap quality of tongued and grooved 
boards, well driven up and securely nailed. Prefera- 
bly this upper flooring is laid crosswise of the building. 

The outside of these buildings is covered with any 
cheap, rough boards obtainable. These should be se- 
curely nailed over the studding of the building, and 
then covered with a good grade of two ply roofing 
paper. On the sides and ends of the building the 
roofing should be put on upright, but on the roof it is 
better to lay it lengthwise of the building and lapped, 
on the plan of laying shingles, the joints all being se- 
curely cemented and nailed down, and then the joints 
and nails painted over with cement, to make sure 
against any possible leaks. 

The inside walls of the building are lined with one 
ply roofing, with the joints carefully nailed and ce- 
mented, and then both walls and ceiling are covered 
with matched flooring. This gives four inches of 
dead air space to all the walls of the building, making 



174 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

them cooler in Summer and warmer in Winter than 
any other known construction. Owing to the roof 
rafters being ten inches in width, the dead air space 
under the roof is of course ten inches. 

The three outsides of the building, north, east and 
west, are covered with roofing down to the ground, 
there being, of course, no inner lining below the floor 
under the House. To the south the House is entirely 
open from the floor to the ground. Each House, 
raised five feet from the ground and open to the south, 
gets the sunlight underneath clear to the back of the 
building, which eliminates all dampness, and, being so 
open prevents rats and other vermin making any at- 
tempt to get into the House. 

The window openings are nine feet long by three 
and a half feet in width. As the studding is three 
feet apart this permits the making of the openings 
without cutting the studding, and so weakening any 
of the supports under the roof. These openings are 
spaced off so that their total length comes as near as 
may be to one-half the length of the south front of the 
House. 

Canvas Windows 

Ventilators, one foot in width and occupying the 
space between the window openings, have recently been 
constructed in these Houses, which permit the closing 
of all canvas windows tight at night, when the weather 




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CONSTRUCTION OF HOUSES 175 

is very cold, letting the air come in through these ven- 
tilators, at the top, without bringing any draughts 
down upon the birds. Detailed plans of these ven- 
tilators will be found at the end of this Book. 

The frames of the curtained windows are made of 
one by four inch boards, with two center supports di- 
viding the window frame into three foot sections. 
These frames are covered with medium weight cotton 
duck, from which the dust must be brushed at regular 
intervals to permit the air to circulate through them 
freely. 

Outside of the Office, Brooder House, Work Shop, 
Stable and the Resident Quarters, no glass is used in 
any of the buildings, with the exception of one small 
pane in the door of each Laying House, through which 
a view of the interior may be had. 

A hood, extending out eight inches, is built over the 
windows and ventilators, the whole length of the 
buildings. This prevents the rain from southerly 
storms beating into the Houses. 

The windows are hung on hinges, and open inward 
from the top, and are fastened to the ceiling with 
wooden buttons. 

The front of all of the window openings, on the 
outside, is covered with one inch mesh wire netting, to 
prevent the birds from flying out, and also to prevent 
sparrows and other birds from flying in to consume the 
grain provided for the fowls. 



176 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

Double Doors 

There are double doors at both ends of each House, 
swinging inward, the opening being six feet in width. 
These doors are made of two thicknesses of matched 
boards, one side being vertical, and the other diagonal, 
with a lining of roofing paper between. These are kept 
closed only in cold and stormy weather. 

A board, twelve inches wide, is fastened to the floor 
a little over three feet back from the door opening. 
This board runs across the width of the House for six 
feet, and at that point a board of the same width, 
three feet long, is fastened to it and carried down to 
the end wall of the House. This makes a clear space 
in which the doors can be swung open without being 
blocked by the litter, which the hens would otherwise 
be sure to bank up against the doors. A vestibule of 
wire netting, on sectional frames, is fastened to the 
ceiling and baseboard, with wire hooks and eyes. See 
details shown in drawing, at the back of the Book. 

The second pair of doors, which open outward, are 
covered with inch mesh wire down to within three feet 
of the floor, and are used during the Summer months 
and in mild weather in Winter. 

A small glass window, about eight by ten, is placed 
in one of the solid doors at a convenient height. This 
enables one to observe the conditions in the Laying 
Houses without being obliged to open the door. 

At the west end of all the Laying Houses there is 



CONSTRUCTION OF HOUSES 177 

a flight of stairs with a platform at the top, five feet 
square and with a hand rail around it, giving easy 
access to the House through the end from which the 
least number of violent storms comes. The east ends 
of the Laying Houses do not have steps and platforms. 

The dropping boards are placed three feet above the 
floor in all the Houses, except in the Cockerel House, 
where they are thirty inches from the floor, as we 
found the growing" cockerels needed additional space 
overhead to prevent injury to their combs. This 
leaves abundance of room in the Laying Houses for 
the birds to work in the litter, and is also of sufficient 
height to allow a man to get under the dropping boards 
to search for the eggs which the hens often deposit in 
the litter. 

This height also gives the Sun an opportunity to 
reach every nook and corner of the House at some 
time during the day. 

Draught-Proof Roosting Closets 

The partitions dividing the twenty foot sections of 
the roosting closets, as previously explained, are seven 
feet in width, extending out one foot beyond the drop- 
ping boards, which are six feet wide, and thus giving 
absolute protection to the hen sitting on the roost, 
from any draughts which may be blowing through the 
House. 

Two sets of roosts are placed in each roosting 
closet, each consisting of five perches, of two by two 



178 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

spruce, nine feet, ten inches long, rounded at the top 
and nailed to a cross piece of the same material. The 
first perch stands nine inches from the back wall ; the 
others are thirteen inches from center to center. Birds 
larger than the Leghorns require more space between 
perches than here specified. The two sets of roosts are 
placed side by side, and are fastened at the back with a 
bolt, as shown in the plans. When the dropping 
boards are being cleaned, the roosts are raised up and 
fastened to hooks suspended in the ceiling. They are 
supported in front by a piece of joist one foot high 
securely nailed to the cross pieces of the roosts. 

There are openings under the dropping boards in 
all the Houses for the egress and ingress of the fowls, 
with a runway leading to the ground underneath. 
These openings are securely boxed and are covered 
at top and bottom to prevent any draughts. The 
detail of these openings is shown in the plans at the 
back of the Book. 

The nests are all made of boxes bought from 
grocers and other dealers in the neighborhood, and are 
much cheaper and better than any nests laid out and 
built by mechanics. They are put up in three tiers, 
and fill up the spaces between the windows, as shown 
in the detailed drawing. 

The boxes are cut down to twelve by fourteen 
inches, which makes the best sized nest. 

In the floor of each Laying House there are three 
hatchways dividing the length of the building into 



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CONSTRUCTION OF HOUSES 179 

four equal parts. These hatchways are for conven- 
ience in removing the litter, and greatly facilitate the 
operation and reduce the necessary amount of labor, 
because a wagon can be backed directly underneath. 
If the wagon should be too high, shovel out a runway 
for the wheels. 

These hatchways are made of two thicknesses of 
boards with roofing between and are rabbited and se- 
curely fastened. 

The nesting material used is fine excelsior. This is 
better than straw or shavings as it does not offer a 
convenient home for lice, and, if the nests be thor- 
oughly disinfected with Crude Carbolic and Kero- 
sene, there is no danger of having any. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

The Colony Houses — There are Forty-one on the 

Farm 

These Houses have a floor space 6xio feet, are 
six feet high in front and five feet in the rear, with a 
shed roof. The frame work is built on three skids. 
The outside skids are made of 3x4 timbers, rounded 
at the ends to faciliate the ready sliding of the Houses 
when it becomes desirable to move them, and 12 
feet in length, making a projection of a foot at either 
end beyond the sides of the House. Two by four 
studding is used for the center skid. The three skids 
are securely fastened together by four pieces of 2x4 
studding. To this frame is nailed the floor, of inch, 
matched boards. The upright studs are made of 
2x3's. In the first Colony Houses we built, 2x4^ were 
used, but it was found there was an economy in using 
2x3's, and, as they answer every purpose, the frame 
being absolutely stiff, they were substituted for the 
2X4's, and they have been used ever since. 

The frame work is covered by a cheap grade of 
matched flooring, the boards running perpendicularly. 
The roof is covered with cheap, twelve inch, rough 
boards, and over this is laid two ply roofing, this be- 

180 



THE COLONY HOUSES 181 

ing carried over the front, back and sides three inches, 
well cemented and securely nailed down, then all the 
joints are again cemented, covering the nails thor- 
oughly. 

Cotton Duck Windows 

The door, for the use of the attendant, is in the 
front of the House, being two feet wide and the full 
height of the inside of the building. On either side 
of the door, hanging by hinges from the plates, are 
two windows 45x27 inches. These are covered with 
a medium weight cotton duck, and open outward. A 
device which carries a long hook readily allows them 
to be fastened so as to practically form an awning, 
which materially assists in maintaining a cool condi- 
tion inside the House during the Summer. Two 
doors for the use of the birds are placed on each side 
of the main door, and are fitted with slides. On the 
inside of the window openings one inch wire mesh is 
securely nailed, preventing the birds from flying out, 
and also keeping night prowlers from going in. Over 
the outside of the window frames also inch wire mesh 
is nailed. The main reason for this wiring of the out- 
side is to prevent the birds, as they develop and fly 
up on top of the Colony House, from breaking through 
the canvas. 

From the detailed drawings which will be found at 
the end of the Book, and the photograph of the Colony 
House, a very clear idea is given of its construction. 



CHAPTER XXIX 

Materials Required for Laying House 

Bill of material for the construction of 60 feet, 
being three sections of the Corning Laying House. 

14 Posts, 8' long, 4" top diameter. 

Cross Braces at ends, and Corner Braces — 5 pieces, 2" x 6" 
x 16'. 

Floor Joists and Roof Rafters, 42 pieces — 2"x io"x 16'. 

Under Floor, 1000' cheap, wide boards. 

Upper Floor, 1200' #4 flooring. 

Inside Ceiling, 2500' #4 flooring. 

Outside Covering and Roof, cheap wide boards, 2400'. 

Uprights, 38 pieces, 2"x 4"x 12'. 

Plates, 10 pieces, 2"x 4'x 12'. 

Dropping Boards, 450' #4 flooring. 

Dropping Boards supports, 3 pieces, 2"x 4"x 20', and 3 pieces, 
2"x4"x 12'. 

Lath, 500 lineal feet i"x 2". 

Partitions, 100' #4 flooring. 

Hoods, 60 lineal feet, pine, l"x8". 

Sills, 3 pieces pine, i"x io"x 10'. 

Window Frames, pine, i"x 4" ; 2 pieces, 10' and 1 piece 12' 
long. 

One roll of roofing contains 108 square feet. 

For Lining between floors 10 rolls 

Lining between walls, sides and ends 9 rolls 

All of one ply 19 rolls 

All outside covering, two ply 25 rolls 

Ventilators to be the length between the windows, with width 
of opening 12 inches. See detailed drawing at end of Book. 

182 



MATERIALS REQUIRED 183 

Bill of Material for the Construction of Colony House 

Skids, 2 pieces, 3"x4"xi2', and i piece, a'xV'xio'. 

Braces, 2 pieces, 2"x4"x 10'. 

Uprights, s pieces, 2"x 3"x 12'. 

Nailing Pieces, 2 pieces, 2"x 3"x 10'. 

Rafters, 2 pieces, 2"x 3"x 14'. 

Plates, 2 pieces, 2"x 3"x 10'. 

Roof, 60' of 12 inch cheap boards, 10 feet long. 

Floors and Walls, 300 feet #4 flooring. 

Window Frames, 2 pieces pine, i"x 4"x 8'. 

75' of 2 ply roofing. 

It is impossible to give prices of lumber, as there is 
a great variation according to locality. The above 
list will enable anyone to work out the full bill of 
lumber required, and the builder or lumber dealer will 
be able to give the prices in a very few moments. 

The cost of labor on the Laying Houses is from 
$1.50 to $1.75 per running foot. This would include 
every item of labor in the construction of these Houses 
down to the smallest detail. 



CHAPTER XXX 

The Original Thirty Hens 

The egg production of the Original Thirty Hens 
on The Corning Egg Farm is an interesting story, 
but, of course, it must be remembered that this record 
is of one hundred and fifty-three days, the banner 
days of the year for eggs from yearling hens. 

The Biddies arrived in different lots, the last days 
of February, our record beginning with March first, 
and ending with July 31st. During that period they 
laid 2466 eggs, and at the end of the third month we 
lost two of them. The cause of death we were 
unable to tell, for, at that time our experience was 
not of sufficient duration to have made even a close 
guess. 

The average for the birds, it will be noted, was 
eighty-five eggs per hen. Had we been better posted 
as to feeding methods, doubtless the hens would have 
been capable of producing eggs in numbers consider- 
ably greater than the figures show. 

The record, however, for real yearling hens (and 
these were real yearling hens, because when they 
started to lay with us they were fully eighteen months 

184 



THE ORIGINAL THIRTY HENS 185 

of age), was very far from a poor one, and the novice 
who succeeds in caring for his breeding stock in such 
a way that he does not fall short of this average, may 
consider that he has done very well. 



CHAPTER XXXI 

Egg Records 
February ist, 1908 to June 30th, 191 1. 

Dates Average Production Average 

Number of Eggs Price 

of Hens per doz. 

Feb. 1, 1908 to Jan. 31, 1909 2,040 338,976 .5066 

Feb. 1, 1909 to June 30, 1910.... 2,811 709,836 .47125 

July 1, 1910 to June 30, 191 1.... 4,723 612,000 .4618 

AVERAGE FOR FIRST TEN MONTHS OF PULLET LAYING IN FLOCKS OF 
FIFTEEN HUNDRED. 

1009 143.25 

I9IO 145-11 

I9II 146.23 

On examination of this Egg Record it will be no- 
ticed that in the average number of eggs laid by the 
pullets, in flocks of fifteen hundred, there have been 
three gains, and in analyzing these averages it must 
be remembered that these are results obtained, not by 
the handling of a few pullets most carefully selected 
to produce a record, but of thousands, and the ad- 
vance of three eggs in the average is therefore a re- 
markable gain. 

186 



EGG RECORDS 187 

How Corning Farm Is Able To Get Great Egg 
Records 

The salient reasons which make possible such egg 
records as The Corning Egg Farm is able to show 
are: 

1st, — Careful selection of breeders by the Corning 
Method, which is the only proper Method and has al- 
ready been described. 

2nd, — Pullets raised on free range, feeding to them 
a strengthening and upbuilding ration, which con- 
stantly supplies new tissues, and is, therefore, a nu- 
tritious and not a forcing food. 

3rd, — Housing them in The Corning Laying 
House, which to-day stands unequaled, where they are 
practically outdoors yet protected from extremes of 
heat and cold, for if hens are to lay to their capacity 
they must be kept always in a perfectly comfortable 
condition. 

4th, — The succulent, green food, which is so neces- 
sary to their welfare if they are to lay strongly, and 
which must be given to them in large quantities. 

Hens on the ordinary free range, in the general run 
of seasons, after July 1st, cannot find succulent 
green food in sufficient quantities to enable them to 
keep up even a fair average of eggs. Receipts of eggs 
at all large market centers, begin to fall off at about 
this date, and prices correspondingly increase. 



1 88 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

Highest Percentage of Fertility 

Every observer, viewing the stock of The Corning 
Egg Farm, is at once convinced that the scientific 
Method here employed produces better birds than 
any other. The steady increase, from year to year, 
in the hatchability of the eggs towards full fertility; 
the strong, livable chicks, their rapid growth to ma- 
turity; and the voluntary testimony given by our cus- 
tomers whose ever increasing orders come back to us, 
year after year, all conclusively establish the fact that 
hens bred and raised by The Corning Method are un- 
equaled anywhere. 

For the last two years hatching eggs have been 
shipped from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the 
Northern part of Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, and 
even across the Atlantic to far away Scotland. From 
this widely extended territory comes the unsolicited 
testimony that The Corning Strain of Single Comb 
White Leghorns is unequaled. 

At the present time the amount of labor carried on 
The Corning Egg Farm is one working foreman and 
three laborers. The latter are $1.50 a day men, and, 
with this force all the work of the farm is accom- 
plished. The Houses are thoroughly cleaned, as to 
the dropping boards, drinking fountain stands, tops 
of nests, and the inside of nests where required, every 
day in the week and three hundred and sixty-five days 
in the year. 



EGG RECORDS 189 

When the Colony Houses are in use they are 
cleaned and rebedded every two or three weeks, as 
required, during the first part of the Spring. After 
the first part of the season is over, say from July 
1st., they are not cleaned as often for the reason that 
there is very little dampness, and so long as the 
Houses remain dry, the cleaning is not required. 

The cost of feed in the last two years has gone up 
materially, and it now requires an outlay of about 
eighteen cents to raise a Leghorn cockerel to broiler 
size. The cost of raising a pullet to the laying point 
is forty-two and a half cents, which includes cost of 
incubation. The pullet, through her first ten months 
of laying, costs $1.15. 

It is somewhat difficult to give a fixed figure as to 
the cost of caring for the coming breeder through 
the time of moult, during the months when she is pro- 
ducing eggs for hatching, and up to the time when 
she is shipped, in August, eleven months in all. Dif- 
ferent seasons and different flocks of birds vary in 
the amount of food necessary during these months. 
Our records show, however, that the output of eggs 
through the moulting season from the birds which we 
are carrying for hatching eggs has always been enough 
to show a profit over the feeding cost. It would be 
safe to figure that the outlay will be between one dol- 
lar and forty and one dollar and fifty cents. These 
amounts, as given, represent the cost of feeding and 
the cost of labor. 



CHAPTER XXXII 
Prevention and Treatment of Diseases 

Diseases in poultry generally come from neglecting 
sanitary conditions. A damp house, filthy drinking 
fountains, musty and sour foods, or a general condi- 
tion of filth, bring diseases, whether the birds are kept 
in large or small flocks. 

An ailing bird should at once be removed and 
isolated, and, unless it shows immediate signs of re- 
covery, the best remedy, and the safest, is the hatchet. 
The constant and systematic spraying of the roosting 
closets, the drinking trough platforms, underneath the 
dropping boards, and in the corners between the sec- 
tions, with Kerosene Oil and Crude Carbolic (and it 
must be remembered that the solution used for spray- 
ing is one-half gallon of Crude Carbolic to five gallons 
of Kerosene Oil, when the birds are in the House), 
will eliminate all danger of contagion, provided the 
Houses, in all other respects, are kept in a proper and 
cleanly condition. 

When the pullets are first put into the House, in 
the Fall of the year, it is wise to watch with great 
care that individuals in the flock do not develop the 

190 



PREVENTION OF DISEASES 191 

" snuffles," which mean increasing trouble of a more 
serious nature if allowed to go without attention. 

The washing of the drinking cups of the fountains 
with Kerosene Oil, and Potassium Permanganate in 
the water once a week, will, in most cases, keep the 
flock immune from trouble. Spraying is one of the 
best cures for colds, as it not only restores the affected 
bird to health, but clears up the danger of infection 
which, otherwise, might result in spreading disease 
among the whole flock. 

We have never had a " run " of any disease at The 
Corning Egg Farm. Gapes and White Diarrhoea — 
the most dreaded of all young chick diseases — are 
unknown on the Farm. This is attributed to the 
strong vitality and vigorous condition maintained by 
fresh air housing, cleanliness, sanitary regulation, and 
by giving sweet, wholesome food and plenty of pure, 
fresh water. 



CHAPTER XXXIII 
A Word in Closing 

Our business is running The Corning Egg Farm 
and not writing books, so that in telling our Story we 
may have lacked some of the polish of the experienced 
author, but every word that we have written is true, 
and we shall be very glad to welcome any of our read- 
ers at the Farm, and let them see for themselves just 
what we have. 

The Corning Egg Farm actually does enjoy the 
supreme position among the egg farms of the World 
that we claim for it, and that the great authorities, 
after thorough, personal examination, have frankly 
admitted. 

And we have been far more open in telling you 
everything that has been done on the Farm than, for 
instance, owners of large manufacturing plants would 
be. 

Methods and problems in the successful and profit- 
able production of eggs for table and hatching pur- 
poses have been worked out on The Corning Egg 
Farm, and we are quite willing others should have the 
benefit of our very expensively acquired experience. 

192 



A WORD IN CLOSING 193 

Nothing to Hide 

We have nothing to hide; nothing to keep to our- 
selves. We started in a very modest way, and believe 
that is the preferable way to successfully build up a 
paying poultry farm. Those who have an abundance 
of capital might be tempted to work out too many 
self-evolved theories and to begin on too elaborate 
and extravagant a basis, whereas, in our opinion, it 
is wiser to follow precedent, known successes, and 
start in a smaller way and expand. 

Illustrations are Photographs 

The illustrations in this Book are all from photo- 
graphs, and the camera cannot be persuaded to exag- 
gerate or to show buildings where there are none. 
The diagrams are drawn of sufficient size, and such 
measurements given, that our plant in its entirety, or 
any part of it, can be readily reproduced by anyone 
who cares to do so. 

The Corning Success 

The success we have made on the Farm gives us 
a certain feeling of satisfaction that we are entitled 
to enjoy, and yet we have accomplished nothing that 
cannot be done by any person who will give as much 
thought, time and attention to the work as we have. 



i 9 4 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

Our Advice to Beginners 

Our advice to the beginner is that he carefully study 
the Corning Method as set forth in this Book (and 
we want to impress upon you again the fact that the 
Corning Method is just as adaptable to the town lot 
as to the large tract, and in this particular it surpasses 
other systems which have had considerable publicity), 
and then start, either with a breeding pen, or with an 
incubator and hatching eggs purchased from a Breeder 
whose eggs can be depended upon, and in this connec- 

Single Comb White Leghorns Only 

tion we want to say that for the production of eggs 
there is only one breed of fowls — Single Comb 
White Leghorns — and that, in considering the pur- 
chase of a breeding" pen, or eggs for hatching, expe- 
rience will show that it is the height of folly to be- 
grudge the additional price you must pay in order to 
get the right kind of Stock. Whether you buy Corn- 
ing Strain or not, let us again emphasize the fact that 
no matter how famous the Breeder, or how high his 
prices, if he has not a Strain that has proved itself a 
good Strain, you do not want it at any price. It is 

It's "Strain" You Want 

Strain that counts, because it includes every good 
quality for the purpose, and the market for the right 



A WORD IN CLOSING 195 

Strain for breeding and hatching is a very large and 
profitable one. The Corning Egg Farm cannot pro- 
duce enough birds and eggs to fill its orders, and prob- 
ably never will, because we do not believe in increasing 
the size of the Farm beyond our ability to be person- 
ally in constant touch with every detail connected with 
it. 

Utility, Not Show Birds 

We want to write just a word or two as to the 
difference between a Strain for the production of eggs 
and of Show Birds. It must be remembered that a 
great laying Strain cannot be, at the same time, a 
Show Bird, at least not under the present require- 
ments of the Association, because a great egg layer 
must have size, and must be bred to produce size, and 
not inbred to secure fancy Show points, which produce 
a bird without constitution, and eggs from birds of 
the show class are small, the fertility runs low, and, 
in many instances, their hatchability is so poor as to 
be hardly worth speaking of. 

Corning Largest Specialty Farm in World 

The Corning Strain Single Comb White Leghorn is 
an egg machine, a large bird, of vigorous constitu- 
tion, and typical Leghorn shape. The Corning Egg 
Farm is the largest poultry farm in the World de- 
voted entirely and exclusively to one single purpose 



196 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK 

— the developing and breeding of the great egg ma- 
chine, Corning Strain Single Comb White Leghorn. 

Points That Mean Success 

Just to repeat in regular order the points a Breeder 
must observe if he is to make a permanent success: 

Suitable location for houses and runs. 

Properly planned, arranged and constructed houses. 

Right breeding stock. 

Hatching eggs from a farm that has " made good." 

Care in incubating and brooding. 

Proper handling of the pullets and cockerels. 

Careful selection of breeders. 

Regularity in feeding and attending. 

Properly balanced ration. 

Clean, sanitary quarters, fresh water, and pure air, 
all the time. 

Constant adherence to one Strain, and that the best 
Strain. 

Be jealous of your reputation, because it is on your 
reputation that you build up a demand for breeding 
stock and eggs for hatching. 

Care, and courtesy, and regularity in serving cus- 
tomers. 

You will know after reading this Book that on the 
Farm we have little idle time on our hands, and yet 
we are always willing to advise and help those who 
are really seriously seeking information, and who are 
willing to accept what we may be able to give them, in 



A WORD IN CLOSING 197 

addition to the contents of this Book, and in our 
regular way of furnishing it. 

The Authors. 



BUILDINGS ON THE CORNING EGG FARM 
AND MANY HANDY DEVICES 

These plans and drawings are of sufficient size to 
show quite clearly the construction of every building 
on the Farm. Those who care to do so are entirely 
welcome to duplicate the entire Plant, or any part of it. 

As the dimensions are also given, it is a simple mat- 
ter to reduce the size of the buildings to suit a flock 
of any number, because, as we have made clear in the 
Book, the Corning Method and Buildings are equally 
suitable for the largest flock, or the few hens and a 
rooster kept by the average family. 

We do not want to be thought egotistical, but be- 
lieve we have the most complete and economically ar- 
ranged lay-out in the country, but if any reader thinks 
he can point out improvements we shall be very glad 
to hear of them, and to discuss those that are worth 
while in some future edition of the Book. 

Of course it is easier to build from an architect's 
plans, and we can furnish working size blue-prints of 
the principal buildings. 



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BlNGHAMTON, N, Y. 



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